The AO (Ambient Occlusion) map allows you to estimate the level of brightness from global illumination. For each point on the surface, its approximated illumination is calculated by tracing a large number of randomly directed rays.
Occluded
The color value of the ray if it is blocked by the surrounding geometry.
Unoccluded
The color value of the ray if it is not blocked by anything.
Distance
Maximum tracing length.
Balance
Allows you to non-linearly shift the averaging result towards Occluded or Unoccluded.
Num Samples
The number of rays in each render pass.
Target direction
The object towards which the rays will be traced.
Directionality
The degree of directionality of the rays. 0 - hemisphere centered at the shading location. 1 - strong orientation towards the object or along the normal to the surface.
Outside
Trace rays outward from the object towards surface normals.
Inside
Trace rays into the object in the opposite direction from the normals to the surface.
No excludes
Additional filtering of objects in the scene will not be performed.
Exclude same object
The object being shaded will not cast a shadow - it is ignored in ray tracing.
Include same object
The object being shaded will cast a shadow - it participates in ray tracing.
Include list
If not empty, then only objects from this list and, possibly, the object of the current shading will participate in the trace.
Exclude list
Objects from this list will be ignored in ray tracing.
