What are the Ubershader2's Occulsion Shading Rate and Mode for?

SnowSultan

Does anyone know what the parameters "Occulsion Shading Rate" and "Occulsion Shading Rate Mode" are for in the Ubershader2 settings? They're not in the manual or in the video tutorials that the manual links to. I can't tell if they're really affecting ambient occulsion form the UberEnvironment or not.

Speaking of which, if anyone is listening, could we possibly get an Ambient Occulsion option in the next Ubersurface so we can apply AO per surface? Buildings often look better with higher AO than people, so it would be nice to be able to set them individually. I know pwSurface2 can do it, it would just be nice to have it here too.

Thanks,

SnowS

Jaderail

Wait just one second. If you apply Ubersurface to a building you have controls for that instance. If you Apply it to another figure you have controls for that second instance. Ubersurface2 is a Shader, each surface it is applied to gets the settings added to that surface. You should have full control for every surface you apply it to.

SnowSultan

You should have full control for every surface you apply it to.

Correct, the problem is that the Ubersurface2 shader doesn't have any controls to add Ambient Occulsion to begin with. At the moment, you have to use a global lighting setup like the Uberenvironment to add AO, which applies the same amount to all objects in the scene. I was asking for individual AO control in the Ubershader itself, where we could then do exactly as you say, control it surface-by-surface.

adamr001

SnowSultan said:

You should have full control for every surface you apply it to.

Correct, the problem is that the Ubersurface2 shader doesn't have any controls to add Ambient Occulsion to begin with. At the moment, you have to use a global lighting setup like the Uberenvironment to add AO, which applies the same amount to all objects in the scene. I was asking for individual AO control in the Ubershader itself, where we could then do exactly as you say, control it surface-by-surface.
Sure it does.

Jaderail

I was pretty sure I had that one right, Thanks for the backup Adamr.

SnowSultan

Adam, it has the option to disable AO or allow it to be calculated on any particular surface, but the AO must come from another source. pwSurface2 can actually add AO without having to use an UberEnvironment or other global lighting, that's what I mean by being able to set it per-surface (setting the intensity at 75% on a building's materials and 30% on a human figure's for example). Ubersurface2 only allows the surface to either accept whatever AO the light setup is throwing out or ignore it (which is useful for hair).

adamr001

Hmm, I could've sworn. Unfortunately I'm not in a situation right now where I can test things. If indeed, it's missing a "provide AO" function then I agree it'd be a very good thing to add it. Then we could move away from pwS2 or ShaderMixer based surface AO.

(I'm *still* working on my ShaderMixer AO script, LOL)

ETA: Given that USS2 is still omnifreaker's (only USS1 belongs to DAZ) he's the only one who can do anything about adding it so you might consider trying to suggest it directly to him.

SnowSultan

Do you have any idea how to contact omnifreaker? I can't find contact links for him here.

Thanks!

Szark

I found this page http://www.omnifreaker.com/index.php?title=Contact

PS I also agree it would be nice to have an AO setting like PWS2 has and I concur one needs an additional light soucre (UberEviroment for example) for the AO to work as it stands now in UberSurface.

SnowSultan

Thanks Szark, I will send him a message and ask if he can take a look at this thread.

Szark

My pleasure. If you can't get hold of omnifreaker then let me know as I have an alternative contact details from the old forum which was made avaible by Omni himself in his forum profile.

omnifreaker

SnowSultan said:

Does anyone know what the parameters "Occulsion Shading Rate" and "Occulsion Shading Rate Mode" are for in the Ubershader2 settings? They're not in the manual or in the video tutorials that the manual links to. I can't tell if they're really affecting ambient occulsion form the UberEnvironment or not.

"Occlusion Shading Rate" is a quality control, mainly intended to be used on surfaces like hair which are very slow to raytrace (occlusion). If "Occlsion Shading Rate Mode" is set to override, then the surface will use "Occlusion Shading Rate". When set to "Global", the shading rate will be used from the Render Settings. Like the shading rate in RenderSettings, a higher number = faster renders.

You can turn occlusion off on the surface with the "Occlusion" toggle.

Speaking of which, if anyone is listening, could we possibly get an Ambient Occulsion option in the next Ubersurface so we can apply AO per surface? Buildings often look better with higher AO than people, so it would be nice to be able to set them individually. I know pwSurface2 can do it, it would just be nice to have it here too.

Good suggestion. I would also like to get a version of light linking working so that you can have multiple environment lights affecting different surfaces.

SnowSultan

Ah, thank you very much for explaining. I actually didn't know AO was calculated according to the Render Settings, I thought it was controlled entirely by the Uberenvironment's AO settings.

Thanks for considering the idea too. I'm trying to slowly reduce my dependence on pwSurface since the disappearance of Poseworks, and the Ubersurface is an excellent alternative. All I'm missing is that per-surface AO. ;)

Much appreciated, thanks for your time.

SnowS