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Aracirion wrote:there are the two images for Ben and dmh. Why is AO ugly? Cause its grainy? I'll have a look at distance tomorrow ....

One thing I would like to note in the park image (however it is probably the case in the building one too) is that the walls on the outside of the tile are lighter than the walls on the inside. This is caused by the AO also casting light from below the ground level.
I usualy put a plane with an ENV material (so it doesnt render) around my tiles to prevent this. I also use that plane for reflections, as mentioned in another thread.

dmh: You're right about brightness. So you use the horizontal planes for reflections?

Yeah, basicaly like this (except with better textures, that blend better with the tile ground).

(p.s. there is no AO or AA on this)

distance effects the darkness, of the corner areas.

the images posted show that darkness is streching about 1/2 way up the walls, which is far further than realistic. setting a distance value will make this more realistic.

however the other possibility is that the Cube was set to "Smooth" mode, which is incorrect for angles over 30 degrees, Auto-smooth is often the best option.

graininess is IMO not such a deal.

Alltaken

Costas: Making shaddows applie to individually buildings would require a redicualsy large amount of renders of everyposible combination of layout... Although in reality the shaddow should caste onto the building, i think here it is inportant not to cover up one building with another buildings shaddow.

In just appling it to the ground sprite, the squares get more blended together, but still allow each buiulding to show off its splendor.

I agree though that the example i posted didnt have buildings all arround, but once there is buildings infront of that example, you wouldnt be able to see those sprites at all...not because of shaddows, but just the building in itself.

dmh_mac wrote:One thing I would like to note in the park image ... is that the walls on the outside of the tile are lighter than the walls on the inside. This is caused by the AO also casting light from below the ground level.
I usualy put a plane with an ENV material (so it doesnt render) around my tiles to prevent this.

I tried to correct it, but unfortunately it makes everything darker because it blocks the AO light from below ground. Unfortunately, too, radiosity in blender is useless to simulate light that is knocked off the ground (or I can't figure out how to use it...?). So I played around with the setting to arrive at this.

dmh_mac wrote:I also use that plane for reflections, as mentioned in another thread.

Having a look at ciribank building.... I think reflection s are going to be a huge problem. Won't it look pretty bad if we use a road reflection map, when there is no road in front of the building but grass? or vice versa?

Those images are varied merely in the DistF parameter for Ambient Occlusion. In my opinion, 10 is best definitely, but 10 is maximum so we can't try higher without scaling. Is there a reason for the current size? Why not use 1 Blender-Unit = 1 Meter?

are you using Add, subtract, or both?

Alltaken

add

Its getting really good...your 'C oa1,6 - df10 - ref 1.png' is even better than the previous best. 'new B [0,6][1,5].png'

There is slightly less contrast between the sides than before, but the tops and the shaddow areas retain there contrast. I dont think you should go any lighter on the shaddows though. With df10 the extreamly dark area is quite small...i think any higher will loose the darkest tones.

Just tried making a similar lighting system in max, so i can make things that should transfer across to blender with less texture trouble. For anyone else using max, I used 1 omni, and a Skylight in the same spot on default, both with shaddowing applied. Then the Ambient Light is 8,8,8,0,0,8 and the tint is 215,222,217,97,8,222 and set at level 0.6. Its not perfect though.

is the cube set to smooth? or solid?

if its set to smooth, please set it to solid.

(i am trying to diagnose a problem with the render that i see, that may be effecting the lighting setup)

Alltaken

alltaken: the cube is set solid; I attached the scene file in case you want to have a look.

@Ben_Robbins_ : thanks for the feedback

I rendered a new building with the new setting, and it seemed a little dark (the colour on the front wall) , so tried out 2 ways of brightening it. AO 2 makes the shadows too bright, I guess. But how about sun 0,8 or sun 1? remember the testobject is total white, so the 255/255/255 area (red outlines) wont be so big in darker surfaces.

hmm...Im slightly lost as to what your variing, (as far as i understand theres 3 varients? AO, AA, and Dist F) but just evaluating what you have there, Seeing the 'Sun 0.6 / AO 1.6' in comparison to the others, it now appears a bit to yellowy....but i still think it has the best contrast. (on the ball top). It has a softer variation, and less sudden as well. In the two beneth it the spheres have less depth to them. The ones beneath seem too contrasting...but, on the other hand the windowsills in Sun 1 are the best there i think....

Putting up the AO to 2 seems to be having the effect of increasing the general backing light, and the entire image looks dazzels on the blocks, but better on the house, casue you can see the left wall a lot better... The windowsills arnt as good as sun 1 though.

So I can see advantages with 3 of them....hmm....I think AO 2 (except for the purpose of lighting the side wall) is too bright. I dont fully understand the effects of the dist F function, but if that was raised, and the ambient light lowered, then AO2, (as far as i understand) would retain its varition but with heavier shaddowing....

That is a really bad discription of what im thinking...Sorry

plz post the .blend as .zp instead of .txt, its a problem with my pc.....

just rename the extension to .blend

dmh_mac wrote:just rename the extension to .blend

i know the trick it just wont open then, so im asking him for a .zip file not that hard....

so we worked really hard on the lighting setup today and thats where we got. The cubes, from left to right, are brightness 0,25 / 0,5 / 0,75 / 1. Gound Tile and big cube are 0,75 as well. I'm going to bed, good night.

new one is definantly better

Yeah the newest one is pretty sweet

I like it.

Alltaken