Michael - That's why I mentioned make up.
"Were you suggesting previously that you just wanted more power in GISD,
or that AO is better, or that the two should be used together, or?"
I like GISD,but it doesn't cover all
aspects.So an additional cavity shader
would help a lot with things like "crevices between two stone bricks" and
more.And AO on a per object basis could also help,but it may be more
practical and convenient to use an external solution that fits the model
anyway.
And yes,from my point of view these two - cavity and AO - should be
used in conjunction,depending on what you're after of course.
Oshyan -
Ulco - Yes,in my case it's done with ZBrush.Actually it was AO masking converted to
texture,but there are other ways,too.
Sometimes I use this masking as a guide to paint AO manually.Or cavity painting.
Or combinations thereof.
You can use programs like xnormal(free) to generate AO maps also.
As far as I know you can do AO renders and most likely maps with Lightwave,
too.It's possibly called radiance render in LW.