NO ! I can't get it to work. It says it can't find SDL.dll. I can't find what path it is using to try and access it either. Any suggestions.

MusicMan wrote:

NO ! I can't get it to work. It says it can't find SDL.dll. I can't find what path it is using to try and access it either. Any suggestions.

sdl.dll is in the zip file you just downloaded, make sure the blender.exe is in the same folder as sdl.dll. in fact: download extract and run. Hope this help.

GFA-MAD wrote:

Well Gabio, pa_furijaz 's question is good because when occlusion was a light, it was easy to change the power of the light to modify the ambient color. In the new table, there is no option for the "power" of the effect. So pa_furijaz, you have to touch the ambient intensity in the material and the ambient color in the world to change the effect of the occlusion. GFA-MAD

Hi, thanks for the build, Gabio. About AO, I agree with GFA-MAD. IMO, it definitely made more sense to have AO as a light. With AO as a Light you can:

Switch it on or off quickly by layer.
Easily tweak it like any other light instead of having to switch to the Worldbuttons.
Have multiple AO lights, for example a normal one for global shading and a seperate one using Subtract blending mode and a low Distance setting to simulate dirt.

Perhaps AO should just be merged with the hemilight. The two lights are very similar already, just AO has accurate shadows. Having AO be a hemi should speed up rendering as well since most scenes have a floor and the light coming from below is just being occluded anyway.

Turning on Rayshadow for the hemi would activate AO and adding a button for Sphere would make the hemi a full sphere, in case it's ever needed.

Some food for thought.

dmao: Your ideas are intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

hint: Maybe someone should post a poll about how the AO features should be implemented.

I tested the window build, it may be just bf but the sound skips and the game play is slightly lagging compare to the 2.25 version it's more flaw. I love the new textures that were put, finely, something a little more random then just the basic, I'll look forward working with it in the future. A liberary plug in would most welcome as well as the texture liberary, lets have that in with this or next version.

this one is game enabled?? coolio man. so many new goodies,....

Well, this new AO seems to raise a lot of question. Cool

In my opinion, the AO mustn't be in the render setting, because it could be possible to affect this effect only to some object. And also, like the current solution, there would be an unique seting for the complete scene.

dmao has a good idea: AO could be merged with an hemilight lamp. By combinating it with layers, it is possible to have different AO settings...

The solution in current CVS build (in world panel) is correct, but if you want in a same scene simulate dirt for some object and GI of other, you can't. That's a big problem: There is one setting for the whole scene....

At last, AO could be seen has a texture...why not ? Each object can have his own setting...

GFA-MAD

And what if the AO feature will be selectable in every lamp type settings? The same way as raytraced shadows. And then, in render buttons pannel, there could be one more button [AO] just beside the [RAY] and [Shadows] buttons?

Why not unions8 ! The only thing that could interfere with is the way AO works. Suppose you put a spotlight with AO. All the scene will be ful of light, not only the spot cone ! It could be strange for a lot of user.
But with a true radiosity process, the way you say is the best. I think that with time this AO will become a true radiosity process. And Blender will become the only soft to have two different GI algorithm... The dream !

GFA-MAD

Well yeah the downside of AO now is that you can't set it to work on "layer" as with a lamp.

I really really like lusque's idea... would it be possible to save AO data once and then automaticly apply it to images rendered later on??? that would really save on render times. A bit like radiosity indeed. color settings would help. And well since AO is lighting with is different to regular lamps why not put it in the lights window, but give it it's own tab there.

Does anybody know if it is planned to implement any kind of Depth of Field process in near future releases?

Thank you.

AO is not a lamp... it's a method for more sophisticated ambient
calculus, thats why it is - like ambient values - in world menu.
Lamps have position, are in layer, can be animated, etc etc.

AO could also become part of the shaders in Material, but the amount of
settings for AO is large, and would add quite a lot of work for artists.

macouno wrote:

Well yeah the downside of AO now is that you can't set it to work on "layer" as with a lamp. I really really like lusque's idea... would it be possible to save AO data once and then automaticly apply it to images rendered later on??? that would really save on render times. A bit like radiosity indeed. color settings would help. And well since AO is lighting with is different to regular lamps why not put it in the lights window, but give it it's own tab there.

That is the radio tool as we have now.
AO is (screen) pixel based, and just works best during render.

Right... thx for the reply ton

Or then... since we already have a radio tool... ehm... then can't we somehow incorporate that a bit into the raytracing feature? I mean... calculate radiocity including the shadows of raytracing lamps... so then you don't have to do those again... or does that happen alread??? I may give it a try... this is a new thought to me.

Quote:

In my opinion, the AO mustn't be in the render setting, because it could be possible to affect this effect only to some object. And also, like the current solution, there would be an unique seting for the complete scene.

These things can be said about most of the features in the Render buttons. The 'Shadows' button is an example.
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