Arnold AO Light Filter

So, what is the Arnold AO Light filter and what does it do?

• The Arnold Light filter overlays Ambient occlusion on all surfaces.
• Makes it possible to get good spacial sense while rendering very fast in any interior-like situation.
• If you combine it with Optix and switch to a RGBA ( denoised ) you get faster renders for dailies or even finals.

Check list:

• Click here – to get the newest public build of Arnold installed on your system.
• 3DS MAX 2018, 2019,2020,2021 running Arnold 6
• Maya, Houdini, C4D supported as well running Arnold 6

Download:

Instructions:

3DS MAX

• Download the light filter for 3ds max.
• unzip the archive and drop the .dll file into c:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\MaXtoA_*Your version*\ ( the image below shows MaXtoA_2020 )

• Start 3DS MAX
• Open the Material Editor and find the light filter under Arnold Maps in a category called AOLightFilter
• Add an Arnold Skydome to the scene.
• Turn Shadows OFF on the Skydome.
• Add an Arnold Light filter on top of the skydome light.
• Drag and drop the AOLightFilter to the Light filter slot.
• Work with the AO Distance till it looks like what you want. ( Tip for interiors, set Far Clip to half the height of the room to favor speed and looks )

MAYA:

• in maya the best way is to create a folder(LightFilter) with 2 subfolders(ae & bin)
• AOLightFilter.dll & AOLightFilter.mtd in bin folder
• AOLightfilterTemplate.py in ae folder
• Then add ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH & MTOA_TEMPLATES_PATH variables
• ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH = C:\LightFilter\bin
• MTOA_TEMPLATES_PATH = C:\LightFilter\ae

HOUDINI:

• in Houdini create a folder (LightFilter) with 2 subfolders(ae & bin)
• AOLightFilter.dll & AOLightFilter.mtd in bin folder
• AOLightfilterTemplate.py in ae folder
• Then add ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH variable
• ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH = C:\LightFilter\bin
• ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH in houdin.env file or a json.fil

C4D:

• Put: AOLightFilter.dll & AOLightFilter.mtd in: C:\Program Files\Maxon Cinema 4D R21\plugins\C4DtoA\arnold\plugins
• You can access the plugin via Arnold Shader Network Editor in Light filter section
• If you want to get ambient_occlusion_lightfilter showing in create menu (Create->arnold->Light Filter)
• You have to override c4d_symbols.h with provided one
• Overrides in C:\Program Files\Maxon Cinema 4D R21\plugins\C4DtoA\res
• Put arnold light_filter.str in : C:\Program Files\Maxon Cinema 4D R21\plugins\C4DtoA\res\strings_en-US\description
• Put ainode_light_filter.res in : C:\Program Files\Maxon Cinema 4D R21\plugins\C4DtoA\res\description

Technical and general info:

• The Arnold AO Light Filter was originally fabricated by Mike Farnsworth from Autodesk/Solid based on an idea by Aaron on the Arnold Mail ring.
• Screenshotsm .py and .MTD for Maya, Houdini & C4D provided by rachid Hadj Abderrahmane
• I am maintaining the c++ project files and recompile it against new SDK’s in the future.