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Extract Ambient Occlusion Maps properties

Quality

  Determines the quality of the final ambient occlusion map based on multiple shadow maps used for the calculation. Preset values include: Fastest, Fast, Normal, Good, and Best. A higher quality setting increases the number of shadow maps, produces a higher quality map, and increases the time to generate the ambient occlusion map.

Image Size

  Specifies the height and width (in pixels) of the ambient occlusion map(s) output. Preset values include: 256 x 256, 512 x 512, 1024 x 1024, 2048 x 2048, 4096 x 4096. The default setting is 512 x 512.

  NoteA larger Image Size produces more detail in the map, but increases the extraction time and the resulting file size.
Base File Name

  Specifies the name of the extracted map(s). The default name AO(%s).bmp substitutes the name of the model unless a custom file name is specified (for example, AO(head).bmp). The AO prefix is useful for differentiating the map from other paint layers within the diffuse channel.

  Click the ... icon to display the Save As browser to set a directory. Determine a file format from the Save As Type drop down menu and type the file extension in the File Name field. Supported file formats include: .png, .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .tif, and .tga.

  NoteIf the model contains UVs within multiple UV tile spaces, that is, outside the 0 to 1 range, Mudbox automatically creates separate ambient occlusion maps that correlate to each UV tile which get saved to a user-specified directory. For example, the file naming might be as follows: <basefilename>_u1_v1.bmp, <basefilename>_u2_v2.bmp, and so on.
Shadow Map Resolution

  Controls the size of the shadow maps for the occlusion map calculations. Values are preset at 256 x 256, 512 x 512, 1024 x 1024, 2048 x 2048, 4096 x 4096. The shadow maps are not user accessible and are discarded after the generation of the occlusion map.

  Increasing the Shadow Map Resolution produces a more detailed occlusion map and increases the time to generate it. In general, set the Shadow Map Resolution to the lowest value that produces an occlusion map of acceptable quality. The default is 1024 x 1024.

Add as Paint Layer

  Automatically imports the generated ambient occlusion map as a new paint layer within the Diffuse channel of the assigned material. This lets you preview the ambient occlusion map on the selected model(s) and iterate the generated map with different settings if required. You must select Refresh Selected in the Layers menu to update the display after a new version of an ambient occlusion map is generated.

  When turned off, the extracted ambient occlusion map is saved to a user-specified directory without displaying as a layer on the model.

Shadow Darkness

  Controls the brightness of the ambient occlusion map. Decreasing the value darkens the resulting ambient occlusion map. Increasing the value brightens the resulting ambient occlusion map. The default setting is 0.5.

Shadow Contrast

  Controls the contrast between shaded and non-shaded areas in the ambient occlusion map. Decreasing the value reduces contrast producing more mid-tone gray values in the map. Increasing the value increases contrast producing tones that are more white and black. The default contrast setting is 0 (neutral contrast) with the lower and upper range being -1 and 1.

Filter

  Controls the filtering of the multiple shadow map calculations when producing the final ambient occlusion map. Increasing the Filter value may help to reduce visible artifacts in the ambient occlusion map. Decreasing the value may help to improve the overall sharpness of fine details.

Bleed Width

  Specifies the width of the pixel border that automatically gets added along the outside perimeter of each UV shell on the extracted map. This reduces the possibility of seams occurring on the extracted map where shell borders meet. The default width is one pixel.

Skip Back Lights

  Lights situated behind the surface are not taken into account by the ambient occlusion calculations when this option is turned on. Otherwise back facing lights may affect the output. When on, this feature improves extraction results under most circumstances.

Extract

  Launches the ambient occlusion extraction operation using the currently specified settings.

Related topics

Extract an ambient occlusion map