Lighting with Ambient Occlusion

[hsa]

Is there a way to light your scene with Ambient Occlusion only and no lights? I thought I read somewhere that you could do this but not sure how it is done. I would assume and HDRI image is involved somehow?

[Peter M. Gruhn]

That depends on what you mean.

 

Try this:

 

Drop a single light into your scene. Turn it off. - This is to prevent max from using the default lights in the render but have not actual illumination. I don't know if there's a better way to do this.

 

In the "Self Illumination" slot of your material(s) add an AO shader.

 

Render.