I am using the default settings for 5.1 but there is no AO or DFAO in the world, even though DFAO shows up in the visualizer. The settings for AO or DFAO also don’t seem to do anything, and objects still look like they are floating:
I look at Lumen and Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion - #8 by NavJack27 but it didn’t work. Switching to screen space global illumination made the DFAO work (but the AO still doesn’t work). Does anyone know how to fix this?
As you’ve discovered, Lumen replaces all of the AO methods and SSGI replaces SSAO. By disabling static lighting in the project settings you can use the AO output for materials.
But really none of these are likely to fix your problem because AO is not shown in direct lighting. Your problem is that this isn’t a real scene, it’s just a couple of boxes on a groundplane with solid color materials. I think you’ll find that if you actually populate a real scene that the lighting from Lumen is quite realistic without the need for additional AO.
Is there any way to make AO work for simple scenes like this?
Light your scene only with a skylight and you’ll get AO.
