miLabel for Softimage, v1.01 release, 
Softimage 2010+ Only. Win32/64 only. Linux currently not be supported.
Amaan Akram
amaan@amaanakram.com

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What is miLabel useful for?

See Sylvain Berger's explanation for how miLabel is used in Maya for tricky Ambient Occlusion situations.
http://kobayashystips.blogspot.com/2009/08/maya-occlusion-tips.html

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How to use this shader?

Just add a GeoShader Primitive from the Get->Primitive menu, and then add miLabel. Once added, select the list of objects that you would like to give an miLabel value to. That's it.

The default value set in the miLabel PPG is 100. You can manually enter any value, or use the slider. Please note that all values need to be positive, and need to be greater than 100 (an arbitrary limit that I have set).

After downloading mib_amb_occlusion (see below), refer back to Sylvain Berger's website for usage instuctions.

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Additional Shaders required:

For versions previous to Softimage 2011:
miLabel requires an unexposed mental ray ambient occlusion shader, mib_amb_occlusion. You can download the 32/64 bit version of this shader from
http://www.tek2shoot.com/knowledge-base/softimage-xsi/unexposed-mental-ray-shaders-v1.1-32-64.html

Softimage 2011 should have mib_amb_occlusion shader built in by default.

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Sample scene included

There is a scene included in the zip file that shows object self-occlusion turned off, and the same object also invisible to the rest of the objects in the scene for calculating ambient occlusion

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Installation:
1)Install the mi_label SPDL's from Plugin Manager's SPDL menu
2)Install Microsoft redistributables as outlined in Step 4 and Step 5 on the following page:
http://www.amaanakram.com/plugins/aaOceanSuite_1.5/aa_ocean_doc_installation.html

If the shader doesn't work after following the above steps, then the problem is

a) you have may have the 32-bit dll in the 64-bit installation folder (or vice versa), or
b) you have not installed the Microsoft redistributables mentioned above

To fix the problem in (a), do this:

assuming you are installing in the USER folder:
a) copy the "nt-x86" and "nt-x86-64" folders from my original zip file in to your "<USER>/Applications/bin" folder.
b) then copy the spdl in to  "<USER>/Applications/SPDL" folder
c) go to Plugin Manager in Softimage, find the SPDL, right-click on it and select "regenerate preset"

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