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FSXA Baking options for GMax users?

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Michael2

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What are the options, if any, for baking ambient occlusion shadows onto textures for a GMax user? Presently I do this by hand, but am interested in automating the process, both to save time and to see if I get better results.

I gather I would have to get my model into some other 3d program.
 
Michael2 said:
What are the options, if any, for baking ambient occlusion shadows onto textures for a GMax user? ... I gather I would have to get my model into some other 3d program.
Click to expand...

Yep. When Discreet made Gmax they took Max and disabled the rendering function amongst others: there have been attempts to render from Gmax but I haven't seen any which will do AO. If you have access to Max you can get the model transferred via the FFG utility and then bake AO with Max. If you have access to Max...
 
Others may differ, I for one think the rendering capability in fsx or fs9 is not sophisticated enough to generate much benefit in baking your AO. 3dsmax will do it, and probably others. Its certainly not fast.
 
I'm balking at the full price of 3ds Max, although I see you can rent it by the month now. That probably wouldn't work for me because of the way I work. I'm not disciplined enough to do all the baking, or any particular process all at one time. And I almost always decide it's not good enough and then redo it all three months later.

Would Blender be an option?

Bob, I'm not sure I understand your comment. Do you mean the benefits of baking over hand painting would be too subtle to see in the simulation? Even if that's the case, would it not be faster to bake a shadow layer than do it all by hand in the paint program?
 
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Looking at the Blender manual, it seems it can do it. I'll see if I can get a textured model into Blender and play around with it. Thanks Tom for the link to FFG -- I guess I'll be needing that.
 
xNormal is free and can bake AO on gmax models, it's a bit difficult to set up but for the price difference it's well worth it. Basically I've been exporting an .x from MCX which xNormal can read and render an AO map from. Multiple texture sheets require special attention but they can be dealt with.

x_normal_ao_04.jpg


Jim
 
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Michael2 said:
What's MCX? Model Converter?
Click to expand...

Yes.

I wrote a proprietary tutorial on baking occlusions with xNormal a few months ago but most of our devs are using 3DS Max so it wasn't of much use to them. Maybe it will help you, the .zip contains an example model and instructions which should pretty much show you what you need to do:

http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/AO_for_gmax_using_xNormal_part1.zip

Part 2 was intended to cover multiple texture sheets, but when I started writing it I found there wasn't really much to add. Basically when rendering occlusion for sheet #1 you have to move all the UVWs that apply to sheet #2 off the square that represents the texture sheet in the UVW editor and export a temporary model just for the purpose of rendering. Render sheet #2 the same way, moving all the UVWs associated with sheet #1 off the square. xNormal doesn't tile textures when the UVWs are off the square like MCX, Sketchup, and the sim does, if they're off the square they are invisible to xNormal.

Jim
 
Max is more than a bit expensive although the educational version is free now if you qualify. I have seen an unopened Max 2008 for sale lately on eBay but the kids are using the free download now so it didn't sell. Pirate versions have greatly reduced on eBay too, so Autodesk is getting something right.

Thanks for the xNormal link, Jim!
 
I don't qualify for the educational version of 3ds. I've got my model opened in Blender, so I will give that a try first. It will cost me some development time to learn what I need to know in Blender, but I think it will be worth it in the end.
 
Michael, to clarify my point, if you understand which parts of your imagery will collect AO shadows, you probably can paint faster than setting up the scene to enable an AO burn. The difference in quality is lost to the FSX renderer. If you were doing work for artistic renders, that would be a different story.

Just my opinion; when I finally bought 3dsmax, I enjoyed learning how to do AO and other texture burning, so you should to, especially with Jim's help with his tool. Then, you can make your own decision over workflow. My comment was intended to suggest NOT forking over $3K for 3dsmax if AO was your only reason.

Best,
Bob
 
Well, I think you're about not spending $3K just to AO burning and that is the only thing I would want from 3ds Max as Gmax does everything else I need (although I imagine that boolean cuts must surely work better in recent versions of Max) Painting it by hand was how I started, but I foresee difficulties in maintaining consistency from one part to the next and it I have found it pretty time consuming. I am mainly concerned with the VC at this point. I have noticed that in P3D v2 with cockpit shadows on, the graphics engine provides no shading at all on polys not actually in direct sunlight. So the quality of the AO shadowing on the textures is perhaps more significant in that simulation and I am modelling for both FSX and P3D.

My idea is to set up the lighting just once with some fairly diffuse ambient lighting from above and then I can bake my shadows on various parts as I texture them. I viewed a Blender tutorial that makes it look very easy.

So I have decided to try this out in Blender, which is free, and that will give me the added benefit of learning how to use that program, which I might even use for the totality of my next project.
 
There is now a working exporter from Blender to FSX, so sticking with Blender is an option.
 
I like the AO so much but lately I think I try to render it first and see if it worth to do. If it is simple I will paint it by hand. Please take a look at this building:
Bunda Raya Complex (VIP terminal)



I did not use AO since I need to make a full detail of the building including the first floor with balcony around then bake it and come back and make low detail one without real indent 1st floor.
I paint it with photoshop and I satisfy with the result.
I think for buildings that is not so detail, paint it is faster. But if I am making a jetway that is so closed to the user, I will bake AO for the model. Don't do it for everything.
 
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