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An Ambient Occlusion or AO map is a grayscale map which contains lighting data. It is not typically used as its own map, and is instead usually combined with the diffuse map to bake in soft shadows.
环境光遮蔽或AO贴图是包含照明数据的灰度贴图。它通常不用作自己的贴图，而是通常与漫反射贴图结合使用以在柔和的阴影中烘焙。
In 3D engines(both real time and otherwise) most lighting and shadow information in the final displayed image output is taken from the lights used in the scene.
在3D引擎（实时和其他）中，最终显示的图像输出中的大多数照明和阴影信息都是从场景中使用的光源中获取的。
This is usually done in one of two ways:
这通常通过以下两种方式之一完成：
The workstation calculating the light’s interaction with objects in the scene during the render, done in all production CPU rendering and most real time engines running on modern hardware.
The workstation doing a kind of ‘pre-render’ to bake lighting highlights and shadows into a lightmap. A lightmap produces a new diffuse map with all the lighting information projected onto it. This means the render engine then uses no lighting information during render time which really softens the load on the end user’s machine.
工作站在渲染期间计算灯光与场景中对象的交互，在所有生产 CPU 渲染和现代硬件上运行的大多数实时引擎中完成。
工作站执行一种“预渲染”，将光照高光和阴影烘焙到光照贴图中。光照贴图将生成一个新的漫反射贴图，其中所有光照信息都投影到该贴图上。这意味着渲染引擎在渲染期间不使用光照信息，这确实软化了最终用户计算机上的负载。
The 2nd situation above is useful for real time engines running on older hardware, or lower spec devices like mobile phones.
上述第二种情况对于在旧硬件或较低规格的设备（如手机）上运行的实时引擎很有用。
An ambient occlusion map is similar to a lightmap, but shouldn’t be confused with one.
环境光遮蔽贴图类似于光照贴图，但不应与光照贴图混淆。
AO Maps are much more subtle than a lighting map and are actually used as well as lighting information at render time, not instead of.
AO 贴图比光照贴图更微妙，实际上在渲染时与光照信息一起使用，而不是代替。
The way its output works technically does not cast shadows like a lightmap would. It just calculates areas of the mesh that are facing away from the light source and darkens them, without taking any further meshes into account.
从技术上讲，其输出的工作方式不会像光照贴图那样投射阴影。它只是计算网格中远离光源的区域，并使它们变暗，而不考虑任何进一步的网格。
This gives an illusion of self-shadowing but will not cast a shadow of one object onto another.
这给人一种自我阴影的错觉，但不会将一个物体的阴影投射到另一个物体上。


Image source
图片来源
AO maps tend to only have subtle shadows and highlights, which are then usually overlaid on other maps (usually diffuse, but some people combine it with their metalness or specular maps instead). This is done in 2D software such as Photoshop.
AO贴图往往只有微妙的阴影和高光，然后通常会叠加在其他贴图上（通常是漫反射的，但有些人会将其与金属性或镜面贴图相结合）。这是在Photoshop等2D软件中完成的。
The end result is that when your model is unlit it will still have some simple light information stored on it like it was in an ambiently lit environment (hence the name, ambient occlusion).
最终结果是，当您的模型未点亮时，它仍然会像在环境光照环境中一样存储一些简单的光信息（因此得名环境光遮蔽）。
Once this is combined with your other lighting it helps strengthen your shadow detail and makes a lot of the finer details of your models pop!
一旦将其与其他照明相结合，它有助于增强您的阴影细节，并使模型的许多更精细的细节流行起来！
AO maps are a very commonly used tool in modern 3D applications, with almost all of them having some built-in functionality that allows you to bake these maps.
AO地图是现代3D应用程序中非常常用的工具，几乎所有应用程序都具有一些内置功能，可让您烘焙这些地图。
Some software like Substance Painter allows you to paint directly onto your AO maps, thereby giving you more artistic freedom with their output.
一些软件（如Substance Painter）允许您直接在AO贴图上绘画，从而通过输出为您提供更多的艺术自由。
Either way, these are a very useful addition to any high quality render. And I do recommend looking into the best ways to implement them into your workflow.
无论哪种方式，这些都是对任何高质量渲染的非常有用的补充。我建议您研究将它们实施到工作流程中的最佳方法。

Image source
图片来源
An Ambient Occlusion or AO map is a grayscale map which contains lighting data. It is not typically used as its own map, and is instead usually combined with the diffuse map to bake in soft shadows.
环境光遮蔽或AO贴图是包含照明数据的灰度贴图。它通常不用作自己的贴图，而是通常与漫反射贴图结合使用以在柔和的阴影中烘焙。
In 3D engines(both real time and otherwise) most lighting and shadow information in the final displayed image output is taken from the lights used in the scene.
在3D引擎（实时和其他）中，最终显示的图像输出中的大多数照明和阴影信息都是从场景中使用的光源中获取的。
This is usually done in one of two ways:
这通常通过以下两种方式之一完成：
The workstation calculating the light’s interaction with objects in the scene during the render, done in all production CPU rendering and most real time engines running on modern hardware.
The workstation doing a kind of ‘pre-render’ to bake lighting highlights and shadows into a lightmap. A lightmap produces a new diffuse map with all the lighting information projected onto it. This means the render engine then uses no lighting information during render time which really softens the load on the end user’s machine.
工作站在渲染期间计算灯光与场景中对象的交互，在所有生产 CPU 渲染和现代硬件上运行的大多数实时引擎中完成。
工作站执行一种“预渲染”，将光照高光和阴影烘焙到光照贴图中。光照贴图将生成一个新的漫反射贴图，其中所有光照信息都投影到该贴图上。这意味着渲染引擎在渲染期间不使用光照信息，这确实软化了最终用户计算机上的负载。
The 2nd situation above is useful for real time engines running on older hardware, or lower spec devices like mobile phones.
上述第二种情况对于在旧硬件或较低规格的设备（如手机）上运行的实时引擎很有用。
An ambient occlusion map is similar to a lightmap, but shouldn’t be confused with one.
环境光遮蔽贴图类似于光照贴图，但不应与光照贴图混淆。
AO Maps are much more subtle than a lighting map and are actually used as well as lighting information at render time, not instead of.
AO 贴图比光照贴图更微妙，实际上在渲染时与光照信息一起使用，而不是代替。
The way its output works technically does not cast shadows like a lightmap would. It just calculates areas of the mesh that are facing away from the light source and darkens them, without taking any further meshes into account.
从技术上讲，其输出的工作方式不会像光照贴图那样投射阴影。它只是计算网格中远离光源的区域，并使它们变暗，而不考虑任何进一步的网格。
This gives an illusion of self-shadowing but will not cast a shadow of one object onto another.
这给人一种自我阴影的错觉，但不会将一个物体的阴影投射到另一个物体上。


Image source
图片来源
AO maps tend to only have subtle shadows and highlights, which are then usually overlaid on other maps (usually diffuse, but some people combine it with their metalness or specular maps instead). This is done in 2D software such as Photoshop.
AO贴图往往只有微妙的阴影和高光，然后通常会叠加在其他贴图上（通常是漫反射的，但有些人会将其与金属性或镜面贴图相结合）。这是在Photoshop等2D软件中完成的。
The end result is that when your model is unlit it will still have some simple light information stored on it like it was in an ambiently lit environment (hence the name, ambient occlusion).
最终结果是，当您的模型未点亮时，它仍然会像在环境光照环境中一样存储一些简单的光信息（因此得名环境光遮蔽）。
Once this is combined with your other lighting it helps strengthen your shadow detail and makes a lot of the finer details of your models pop!
一旦将其与其他照明相结合，它有助于增强您的阴影细节，并使模型的许多更精细的细节流行起来！
AO maps are a very commonly used tool in modern 3D applications, with almost all of them having some built-in functionality that allows you to bake these maps.
AO地图是现代3D应用程序中非常常用的工具，几乎所有应用程序都具有一些内置功能，可让您烘焙这些地图。
Some software like Substance Painter allows you to paint directly onto your AO maps, thereby giving you more artistic freedom with their output.
一些软件（如Substance Painter）允许您直接在AO贴图上绘画，从而通过输出为您提供更多的艺术自由。
Either way, these are a very useful addition to any high quality render. And I do recommend looking into the best ways to implement them into your workflow.
无论哪种方式，这些都是对任何高质量渲染的非常有用的补充。我建议您研究将它们实施到工作流程中的最佳方法。