Static AO Calculation

Ambient Occlusion (AO) calculation parameters can be found in the Model Properties window "Model → Processing → AO". Changing any parameters will trigger AO calculation.

There are 4 different AO modes:

1. Constant white – no AO.

2. Normal Quality – old version.

3. Optix Prime (area-based) – uses NVidia Optix library with an area-based algorithm of calculation value in vertices.

4. Optix Prime (least squares) – same as the previous one but uses another calculation algorithm.

In general, you should test options #3 and #4, then use the option that produces the best result. If you're interested in reading about these algorithms, you can read the official NVIDIA documentation. 

• Distance – the length of casted rays, the default value is 50. It is reasonable to use a smaller distance value for smaller models, otherwise the AO can be too dark.

• Samples – the number of AO samples for each triangle. The default value is 3*number_of_triangles, any smaller value will be ignored. More samples result in higher quality AO!

• Use ground – rays will collide with the ground plane (assuming that the "ground" equals the bottom side of the bounding box). This option can be useful for calculation of AO for static objects which are always standing on the ground.