UGh ok I thought I had this worked out.

I am adding the node to the figure surface. in the diffuse value...but it doesnt seem to be working.

I had gotten the values from another thread with BagginsBill in it stating out to get it on a floor where a shoe met the surface. But it doesnt seem to be working on V4

does anyone have the settings for this. so that where her clothing meet her flesh etc there is the shadow.(sheer clothing, I need the shadow under the clothing so AO is great for it..if I can remember or get the settings :( )

Are you using IDL? If IDL is on, AO nodes shut off by default. You have to check the extra parameter that turns it back on even with IDL.

If you're not using IDL, when you copied my values, where you paying attention to the fact that my units are inches and yours may not be?

Are you using GC? 

How close is the clothing? Is your ray bias (which is set in inches on my screen shots) bigger than the gap? 

Finally - I have seen AO change behavior over recent versions versus the P7 I used in that shoe thread. What version are you using? 

Yes IDL is off.

I am using poser native units and GC is on. clothing is billowing around her, parts are close some are off the body but still near by. I am using pp2012

"I am using poser native units"

Right so the numbers you should use are way smaller by a factor of 100 than the numbers I use, when it involves a distance (such as ray bias).

You cannot just copy my numbers, unless your number system is the same, inches, that mine is. What numbers did you use? I have no hope of clearing this up by just repeating my numbers. 

Hmmm. Recall I mentioned that I suspected the AO node behavior has changed.

I just tried it and found that the Max Distance parameter is not acting the same as it used to. Long ago I wrote that it was different than the max distance of light-based AO. It seems (after just a quick test) that they may have corrected that. (I wrote long ago that it seemed like the AO node was off by a factor of 12, indicating that some programmer got his feet and inches mixed up - but that was just a theory.)

In which case, you need to increase the max distance by at least a factor of 10 vs. any of the old Poser-7 era examples.

I just did one with 150 inches that was more similar to what I used to get with 12 inches.

"I am using poser native units"

Right so the numbers you should use are way smaller by a factor of 100 than the numbers I use, when it involves a distance (such as ray bias).

You cannot just copy my numbers, unless your number system is the same, inches, that mine is. What numbers did you use? I have no hope of clearing this up by just repeating my numbers. 

The numbes I used are Diffuse value:0.30000

On the AO node:

samples:4

max Dist: 50

RayBias:0.100000

strength:1

But Ill change my setting to inches....and turn off GC

Hmmm. Recall I mentioned that I suspected the AO node behavior has changed.

I just tried it and found that the Max Distance parameter is not acting the same as it used to. Long ago I wrote that it was different than the max distance of light-based AO. It seems (after just a quick test) that they may have corrected that. (I wrote long ago that it seemed like the AO node was off by a factor of 12, indicating that some programmer got his feet and inches mixed up - but that was just a theory.)

In which case, you need to increase the max distance by at least a factor of 10 vs. any of the old Poser-7 era examples.

I just did one with 150 inches that was more similar to what I used to get with 12 inches.

Oh ok. The settings I had used were from a thread in 2013...so this may also be why its not working right.

I just had some trouble with a Rich-a-bri SET scene yesterday after loading SR5.  Don't know if it was related or coincidence, but it was the first time I encountered this phenomena.

I had a character sitting at a table. With AO on I would get lighter gray shadows where instead they should have been darker gray. Imagine a table leg with table and shadow. Then imagine turning AO on and the area close to the leg that would normally be darker suddenly showed up as a lighter ring. Same around Character shoes, etc.

I played around with Ray Tracing vs Depth mapping, but eventually just turned off the AO function for now until I figure out what is going on.

Hi there

Not sure,but in those render I've used Bagginsbill AO setting from this thread 

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/index.php?thread_id=2717720&page=7

AO node has been plugged to Diffuse_value on walls usually and settings has been pretty similar from above this thread and my Poser Units are Inches.All renders ahs been rendered with Gamma Correction On and IDL

But don't tried that on the clothes this I must admit 

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura

max Dist: 50

You have your max distance at 50 Poser native units? Did you grasp what I said earlier about my units are inches? If you're following some demonstration I did, that is not at all the number you would use. Your 50PNU would show up on my screen as 5,160 inches.

In 2007, in the shoe thread, I said

"Oh hey I just discovered another thing. The MaxDist parameter changes if you alter your Poser Display Units. This means that the number you should use will depend on your Display Units setting. My units are always inches. So 50 is 50 inches (although clearly it doesn't actually go that far, more like 5 inches.)

So if you're using centimeters, my 50 is your 127 (roughly). If you're using Poser Native Units, my 50 is your .484496."

This constant problem with people copying my numbers but not copying my units is why I even have it in my signature.

"My Poser Display Units are inches."

That statement is not there because I'm proud of the English units of measure. It's there because you need to pay attention to that.

max Dist: 50

You have your max distance at 50 Poser native units? Did you grasp what I said earlier about my units are inches? If you're following some demonstration I did, that is not at all the number you would use. Your 50PNU would show up on my screen as 5,160 inches.

I did and was why I changed it to inches >.< I re-did the nodes just in case afterwards.

I turned GC off, no idl

It still doesnt seem to be working.

OMG - Please don't tell me you forgot to enable raytracing.

Regarding the units, you reported 50 and then afterward said you'll change your units to inches. 

That indicates you don't understand how the Poser "Display" unit works. It will not change what you entered. It will still be 50 PNU if you had the PDU set to PNU when you typed 50. It just changes how it displays and interprets numbers after.

If you enter 50 while PDU=PNU, then switch PDU=inch, the 50 PNU is still there but it will display as 5160 inches. 

In order to use 50 inches, you have to type 50 after you switch to inches. Did you do that? Because that isn't what you said.

And again - the AO node is reached by menu item under Lighting / Ray Tracing so it needs ray tracing enabled to work. You never mentioned that you turned on ray tracing either.

I hate these conversations when they get so confusing - I don't know what you don't know and now I'm explaining things because you didn't say things so I have to assume you don't even know that you should have said those things.

Why people ask for a snap of the material set-up... makes it easier, avoids angst.

like rummy's "known unknowns", we know we don't know OP's settings yet, but at least BB trying to help.

he's best guy to ask.  I would tell 'em to skip AO and shadow-mapped lites, but is intellectual challenge to master 'em.