So I tried the Corona Curvature. Basically this is a nice feature, but still have similar problems, since the red colored edges shins through the outer geometry. See attachment with settings.
Also I do not understand the logic of the AO. Why is there an effect visible although two elements are not intersecting at all ? See the two cubes.
This seems to me the main problem as it should only influence surfaces when they are really touching, no ?
AO is simply “is the surface occluded?” in other words, is something casting a shadow onto it (this is the main original use of AO after all, to fake contact shadows). PS - by casting a shadow, this is not related to shadows from actual light sources in the scene of course, just “close enough it would be casting a shadow from rays from all directions from say an env. light or from light bouncing evenly around the scene”
Yes curvature is the preferred solution for this (as you won’t get that “object nearby seems to be casting a shadow” effect - it will only depend on how the geometry is changing at that point, not on other objects or other parts of the same object “casting shadows”).
I think combinations of Color Spread, Ray Directionality, and Max Distance should let you achieve similar results to the direction offset (been a while since I used AO as dirt though I confess, so I may be wrong in what that let you do…)
