Ambient Occlusion(AO) SFM Tip (Patreon)

I figured that I would start off with something that isn’t really a rookie mistake but something even guys who have been in the scene for years are unaware of, and that is the use of the float $ambientocclusion.

Regardless of skill, I usually see one of two things: AO is left to default values or AO is just entirely removed.

Now, everyone has their own styles and what not, but I believe this compromise I’m about to show you is not well-known. Note: this post is not meant to define AO but to help refine AO in SFM. If you want to know what AO is in general, ask Google.

 (Don’t mind the boring pose - it’s meant to show AO on skin, clothes, and creases)

Usually with default AO settings or the $ambientocclusion value is set to 1.0. You get something that looks like this. The AO is extreme and adds in a lot of unrealistic black tones to your scene. 

Meanwhile, removing AO completely makes your scene look like a low res game.  The $ambientocclusion value is set to 0.0.

There is a compromise worth considering in SFM. If your model has AO, this will help:

1. Spawn your model
   
2. Right click on model >> Add overide materials
   
3. Right click on model >> Show in element viewer >> Model
   
4. Go down to Materials
   
5. Right click on texture >> Add Attribute >> float >> $ambientocclusion
   
6. adjust value til you get the desired result (0.3 through 0.7 works fine)

 Keep in mind that you will have to do this for every texture that will be visible on camera! 

These are the results when the $ambientocclusion value is set to 0.5. For a better look, open this three images in new tabs and compare them.

Now you might  wonder “This is cool and all but do I have to set these values every time?”

The answer is no. The long way to set this is to adjust the $ambientocclusion value through all the VTFs just once. You will have to dig around folders and files to do this.
 

My preferred method is doing the steps listed above just once and using the O rida Script [link] and save these overrides.

Two reasons for that: 1, I don’t have to go out of SFM and 2, the material overrides are saved so that in the future, if I must, I can tweak the settings without restarting the entire process or digging around for VTFs.

Try this out on your working scene! Hope this helps you out in your future projects.

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