Anim8or Community
General Category => General Anim8or Forum => Topic started by: rufsketch1 on September 25, 2008, 08:03:34 am
-
hey all. long time no see. cool that steve got a new forum.
So anyway, after a long anim8or hiatus, i was checking out the new updates. And I'm trying to figure out how to use the new ambient occlusion feature. I should make it clear that i'm far from a fan of the new "attribute" option. I think its a UI nightmare, something blender would come up with.
that said. I created the AmbientOccluder attribute in scene mode. however, trying to render with this and the suggested settings of global intesity 0.0 and ambient intensity 3.14 renders a black scene. which is exactly what i'd expect to render if i set the intensity of lights to 0. could anyone explain what i'm doing wrong here? I'm using the ART raytracer, I'm not especially sure where to specify that i want 64xAA samples or 256, so perhaps it has something to do with that.
and hopefully, this attributes idea is just a temporary thing during the preview phase. other than that, I must say i'm in awe of the feature improvements steve has made. if only i could figure out how to use them >_<.
fun fact: the current version of anim8or works flawlessly in linux under wine. unless i am in fact doing the ambient occluder thing correctly, and wine is messing it up somehow. which i doubt, because i don't think the ambient occluder would rely on any windows libraries.
edit: note, that enabling the AmbientOccluder attribute does increase my render times. there's just nothing in the render to show for it.
-
First obvious question...do you have anything in the scene? :P
But anyway, the AmbientOccluder attribute needs an Int value of 1. So tick "Int" and type in "1" in the blank field in the Attribute dialog.
Double check that you have the ART renderer turned on again, and you can change the samples by going to Render->AA setup (when ART is enabled).
Another thing...have you checked to see if it can render regular scenes as well?
-
... I should make it clear that i'm far from a fan of the new "attribute" option. I think its a UI nightmare, something blender would come up with.
it's only a temporary setup, steve's said he'll work on improving the Attributes UI next time he does a 'proper' release. which is a relief! ::)
-
ah, thanks guys.
I figured out the problem. apparently, the ambient occluder doesn't work if you have your material settings to ambient 0. weird... yet totally expected O_O.
now how do i specify that i want 256xAA?
-
Render->AA Setup... while ART is enabled allows you to specify the sampling. So just type in 256 in the field and you're done. Unfortunately the ART raytracer is horribly slow, and in most cases if all you want is the Ambient Occlusion effect, switch to the scanline renderer and add a bunch of lights casting shadows to fake ambient occlusion.
-
I think its a UI nightmare, something blender would come up with.
actually, blenders interface is very effective, it is designed to maximize work flow, after spending about 20 minutes with it it gets much easier to understand.
though i prefer moddeling in anim8or, i tend to do everything else in blender.
-
I think its a UI nightmare, something blender would come up with.
actually, blenders interface is very effective, it is designed to maximize work flow, after spending about 20 minutes with it it gets much easier to understand.
though i prefer moddeling in anim8or, i tend to do everything else in blender.
I was reffering to its inuitivity, not its workflow.
-
I think its a UI nightmare, something blender would come up with.
Read the directions about the v0.97 preview. This kind of discussion belongs in the v0.97 preview forum, not here. If you had read that forum you would know that the UI for these new features is not final but is intended only to allow quicker experimentation with many different concepts.
-
the remark was an aside to the main question in the post. As I have just reccently become active again, i hadn't had much time to scout the rest of the forums. but i am glad to hear its just a temporary shortcut :).
great work Steve XD.
-
Sorry if I sounded to harsh, rufsketch1! I got a little carried away. My comments were in response to more than just your post - your's just happened to be at the top so it got tagged with my rant :)
-
haha, no biggie. I'm just glad to get ambient occlusion working.