====== Ambient Occlusion Maps ======
The Ambient Occlusion maps within Knald are generated on the fly from the Normal & Height Maps provided by [[the_integrator_knald_1.2|The Integrator.]] They are adjustable in real time and produce extremely high quality and clean results that rival baked AO at 600+ rays.

You can also generate Ambient Occlusion from high to low polygonal meshes via [[the_baker_knald_1.2|The Baker]].

[{{https://s3.amazonaws.com/docs.knaldtech.com/docuwiki/ao_knald_settings_1.2.png?950|Image, Mesh & Baker Ambient Occlusion Settings}}]
 

===== The Image Ambient Occlusion Group's Settings =====

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[{{https://s3.amazonaws.com/docs.knaldtech.com/docuwiki/ao_image_knald_1.2.png?nolink|Image Ambient Occlusion}}]

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**AO Scale:** The strength of the image based AO, irrespective of the Global Intensity slider.


===== The Mesh Ambient Occlusion Group's Settings =====

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[{{https://s3.amazonaws.com/docs.knaldtech.com/docuwiki/ao_mesh_knald.png?nolink|Mesh Ambient Occlusion}}]

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**AO Scale:** The strength of the image based AO, irrespective of the Global Intensity slider.

**Activate Mesh AO** This check box is a toggle to enable and disable Low Poly Ambient Occlusion via an imported mesh.

**Weighting:** A choice between different methods of occluder weighting.
  * **Cosine:** Each sample is weighted by it's cosine to the normal.
  * **Uniform Clamped:** A uniform weighting of visible directions gives the percentage of visible surface area on the hemisphere.
  * **Uniform Unclamped:** Corresponds to projection of visibility onto the first spherical harmonic band L=0.


[{{https://s3.amazonaws.com/docs.knaldtech.com/docuwiki/buck_head_ao_cosine_clamped_unclamped.jpg?nolink&1150|The difference between the three weighting methods for AO within Knald. Cosine (left), Uniform Clamped (middle) & Uniform Unclamped (right).}}]

**Opacity:** The level of opacity used when mixing the Low Poly Ambient Occlusion with the image based Ambient Occlusion.

**Rays:** This slider is used to determine the number of samples in a discrete evaluation of the integral across the half sphere for diffuse outgoing radiance with a constant radiance field with a minimum of 256 and maximum of 8192 rays being available.
  * A higher number or rays will increase the quality of the Mesh Ambient Occlusion at the cost of speed.
  * We do not recommend going below a value of 512 rays as this can cause banding to appear in the map.
  * A value of 1024-2048 or above should be perfect for production.

**Bias:** A bias value based upon mesh density. A value of 10 should be good in most situations.

===== The Baker Ambient Occlusion Group's Settings =====

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[{{https://s3.amazonaws.com/docs.knaldtech.com/docuwiki/ao_baker_knald_1.2.png?nolink|Baker Ambient Occlusion}}]

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**Weighting:** A choice between different methods of occluder weighting.
  * **Cosine:** Each sample is weighted by it's cosine to the normal.
  * **Uniform Clamped:** A uniform weighting of visible directions gives the percentage of visible surface area on the hemisphere.
  * **Uniform Unclamped:** Corresponds to projection of visibility onto the first spherical harmonic band L=0.

**Ignore Backface Hits** Checking this option ignores backface ray hits, which is useful in instances where you are using floating geometry on the High Poly mesh. 

**Rays:** This slider is used to determine the number of samples in a discrete evaluation of the integral across the half sphere for diffuse outgoing radiance with a constant radiance field with a minimum of 256 and maximum of 8192 rays being available.
  * A higher number or rays will increase the quality of the Mesh Ambient Occlusion at the cost of speed.
  * We do not recommend going below a value of 512 rays as this can cause banding to appear in the map.
  * A value of 1024-2048 or above should be perfect for production.

**Bias:** A bias value based upon mesh density. A value of 10 should be good in most situations.
[{{https://s3.amazonaws.com/docs.knaldtech.com/docuwiki/rubble_tile_occlusion.jpg?nolink&512|Ambient Occlusion}}]