NormalMapAIGuide
Ambient Occlusion, Roughness and Metallic Maps — Basics
AO adds contact shadow, roughness controls blurry vs sharp reflections, and metallic marks metal areas. Together they sell a surface under image-based lighting.
Steps
- Upload a surface photo in the homepage generator.
- Adjust AO radius/strength, roughness contrast and metallic level while watching the preview.
- For Unreal or Godot, export the engine preset so AO/roughness/metallic pack into ORM.
- For Unity, use the Unity preset so roughness becomes smoothness in MetallicSmoothness alpha.
Ambient occlusion
AO darkens cracks and crevices where ambient light has trouble reaching. It is not a substitute for real shadows, but it grounds detail when multiplied or packed into ORM.
Roughness (and Unity smoothness)
White roughness means matte; black means glossy. Unity’s Metallic workflow stores smoothness (1 − roughness) in the metallic texture’s alpha. The Unity export preset does that conversion.
Metallic
Dielectrics (wood, plastic, painted metal) stay near black in the metallic map. Bare metal goes white and takes its tint from albedo. Keep this map mostly binary; muddy greys look wrong under IBL.
FAQ
Where does AO go in Unreal?
In the red channel of the ORM texture the Unreal preset creates.
Roughness or specular workflow?
Most modern real-time engines use metallic/roughness. Specular maps still matter for older specular/gloss setups and some Blender materials.
Can I export only one of these maps?
Yes. Use the dedicated AO or roughness tool pages, or download individual PNGs from the generator thumbnails where available.