Object-Specific Influence for Ambient Occlusion Node

Feature Request: Object-Specific Influence for Ambient Occlusion Node

Dear Blender Development Team, I hope you are doing well. My name is Arnab, I’m writing to propose a feature enhancement for the Ambient Occlusion (AO) node in the Shader Editor.

While the AO node functions effectively for general occlusion effects, I’ve encountered a limitation that I believe could be addressed to expand its creative potential. Currently, the AO node calculates occlusion based on all surrounding geometry, without the ability to isolate influence from specific objects or collections. This becomes restrictive in scenarios where we want object A’s ambient occlusion to be affected only by object B, and not by other nearby geometry. For example, in stylized shading or controlled setups, such selective occlusion could be extremely useful.

Feature Request: Introduce a mechanism—perhaps via an input socket, object ID, or collection filter—that allows users to define which objects or collections contribute to the AO calculation for a given shader. This would enable more precise control over occlusion effects and open up new possibilities for stylized rendering, compositing, and technical workflows. I understand this may involve deeper integration with the dependency graph or ray tracing logic, but even a workaround or partial implementation would be a valuable step forward.

I’d be grateful if this suggestion could be considered for future development, and I’m happy to provide further examples or use cases if needed. Warm regards, Arnab Sarker