---
title: "Ambient Occlusion"
url: "https://help.maxon.net/zbr/en-us/Content/html/user-guide/materials-lights-rendering/ambient-occlusion/ambient-occlusion.html"
section_path: "User Guide > Materials, Lights & Rendering > Ambient Occlusion"
description: "An example of True Raytracing Ambient Occlusion – ZBrush artist: James W Cain"
---

# Ambient Occlusion

## True Raytracing Ambient Occlusion

*Stunning shadows!*

![Ambient Occlusion](https://help.maxon.net/zbr/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/AO_example-1.png)\
*An example of True Raytracing Ambient Occlusion – ZBrush artist: James W Cain*

A new, improved version of Ambient Occlusion masking has been added, with intensity and smoothing controls. The new AO even respects other SubTools!

---

## Ambient Occlusion Functions

![AO functions](https://help.maxon.net/zbr/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/AO-Functions.png)

The Ambient Occlusion functions are in the **Zplugin>>Ambient Occlusion** subpalette.

### Distance / Aperture / Samples

These settings control the rays used in calculating the ambient occlusion and affect the quality of the result. In general, the defaults should produce good results. The defaults are: Distance = 0.0999, Aperture = 90, Samples = 256.

### Compute

Compute and display ambient occlusion.

### Smooth

The Smooth slider controls the amount of blurring applied to the ambient occlusion. Although Compute needs to be pressed to show the result, if no other settings have changed then no new computation will be necessary.

### Occlusion Volume

Press Occlusion Volume to include other SubTools when calculating the ambient occlusion.

### Resolution

The Resolution slider is used when calculating the Occlusion Volume for other SubTools. Higher values will give greater accuracy though in general the default setting of 1024 should give good results.

### Recalc

Press Recalc to recalculate the Occlusion Volume for all SubTools. This will be necessary when switching between SubTools or if the SubTools have changed.