"Yes i know it adds AO to renders but what's the difference to using his Python script than adding AO to a selected light?"

Simple. Turning on AO for a light distributes the occlusion across the entire scene, so that every object gets it. Since AO is raytraced, this could mean much longer render times. Now as you may know, not everything in your scene will actually benefit from AO, so in some cases, turning it "on" in the light properties could be overkill. Not to mention, it's a lot harder to get the AO exactly how you want it on every object in the scene (for example, you may want it to appear darker on the ground than on the skin).

So the solution is to include the AO material node on just those objects in the scene that you want to receive it. Doing this also allows you to tweak the AO bias, strength, etc. seperately for different objects of varying size. It provides MUCH greater control an precision than distributing it from a light.

That said, OcclusionMaster makes the process of adding AO nodes to your materials much easier. Sure, you can add it by hand using the Python wacro that comes with P6, but the problem is, on objects with lots of material zones, you'd have to run that wacro on each of them, and tweak the settings by hand. Face_Off's script allows you to select what material zones on your object you want to put the node on, and you can change the bias, strength, and distance values for that node right in one convenient interface panel. Bottom line, it's just a lot faster and more convenient to impliment AO nodes in this manner.

Hope that clears it up a bit for you. ;-) Message edited on: 08/30/2005 19:49

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.