Bump maps with ambien occlusion?

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1

Hi, I’m new to blender and modeling in general so your answers and patience are appreciated :wink:
So my question is. Can you use a bumpmap if you are using only ambient occlusion to light your seen? When I do this I get no indication that the bumpmap is being applied, unless I add a light into the scene as well. Is it impossible to do without a light source other than ambient occlusion, or am I just missing something?

Thanks,
Cole

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I think it’s impossible. Sorry. One thing you could do though, would be blur the bump map slightly and make it less contrasty, and use THAT as a diffuse map.

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You could try it with Yafray. GI and Skydome methods do take bump maps into account, even if there are no sources of direct light in the scene. This might be a limitation of Blender’s AO as I didn’t get it to work right now either.

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Yafray’s compatible, yeah. You should probably use an HDRI though if you want really noticeable results.