Ambient occlusion question

SCS Software ATS and ETS2 editing using ZModeler3 filter. Models, Materials, Animation.

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Mmeister
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Ambient occlusion question

Post by Mmeister »

Hello,

I would ask for advice on AO render. The most of surfaces is perfect but the Cylindrical surface of Airtank seems to have some issue. On the edges of the polygon forming the round cylinder there are shadow lines - that shouldn't be, making it look jaggedy in game.

So my question would be how to make AO of cylinder look smooth?

I thought to make another mat -> another higher resolution AO just for the cylinder -> but that is probably not the best way to go since its best to have as little number of dds files as possible (correct me here if i'm wrong)?


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Oleg
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Oleg »

hello.

try surface\normals\smooth tool on airtank object, then render this fragment again.
Mmeister
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Mmeister »

Thank you very much Oleg, will try and report back
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Oleg
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Oleg »

as a quick test, move this object out of the frame (3-5 meters away) and render it again. Just to find out whether this is self-affecting issue or some objects around give this effect. If this is a self-affecting case (still get bad shading on this object), send me a .z3d file with just this problematic object there, I will take a look what is the cause.
Mmeister
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Mmeister »

Hi Oleg,

It seems like self affected issue. I've rendered it separately and its not much smoother.
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Oleg »

send me a file with just this object in scene, I'll take a look.
Mmeister
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Mmeister »

Sent you the file. Pls take a look. Also the curve on the frame appears the same way. The S bend right in-front of 1st axle.
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Oleg
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Oleg »

Fixed. Get an update.

P.S. use Surface\Nornals\Calculate and Surface\Normals\Smooth before AO-rendering, as surface normals on original 3D model are used in AO computation. Bad normals can give artifacts.
Mmeister
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Mmeister »

Thank you Oleg,

Works now perfectly.
Mmeister
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Mmeister »

Hi Oleg,

One question.
Is there any chance to render AO with the GPU in ZModeler3 instead of CPU?

I tried that in Blender and it take a few seconds compared to CPU rendering. Blender native Cycles - Bake, or TEXtool.
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Oleg
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Oleg »

nope, no plans on redoing this code
Mmeister
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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Mmeister »

Hi again.

If I may continue this topic.

I made chamfers on cylindrical body: polygon mode -> slicing tool (adding the splitting line) -> center the pivot -> scale in appropriate views and directions -> calculate normals (C) -> smooth vertices

And the cylinder still looks jagged both in Zmodeler3 and the game.

Please help how to make this appear smooth.
Thank you.

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Re: Ambient occlusion question

Post by Oleg »

something is not good with the topology of the mesh. I think it should have outline edges on capping and chamfer. so the surface\normals\calcualte gives an accurate shading and sharp edges. then you can smooth these sharp edges with surface\normals\smooth.

also, keep in mind that environment reflection texture on your material is not accurate and can give inaccurate visual perception of the surface/shape.
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