Well, I just posted this last night, but it's been a nagging problem. The problem is smoothing- whether in Wings 3d (where smoothing is like jalapes, a little goes a long way), or Bryce (just Texas Pete sauce..;). Here's the initial model, done in Wings 3d..

bringing it into Bryce, I get this (done in 3ds with default Wings settings, if that makes a difference..;)

As you can see, lots of unwanted facets, even after the 'pod' has been smoothed (just doubled the number settings on the sphere). I used the default smoothing settings in Bryce (which is probably what I need to find out, what smoothing settings will preserve the desired details without making the whole thing a campfire marshmellow) Applying them, we get this.

so my question is- is there differing levels of smoothing needed for specific types of edges?..I could experiment, but that takes a while. Any good ideas/tutorials on this? thanks.

well, I believe the smoothing is based on the largest change in angle degree that should be smoothed. So... say you have an extruded octagon and you want the sides to smooth so that it appears more like a cylinder. Smoothing must be set to at least 45 degrees. so set smoothing at the lowest possible angle that will cover the largest change in angle between two adjacent polygons that you want smoothed. hope this makes sense.

In bryce, import th object. If you have a model with lots of faces, you can smooth at bout 15 degrees. Press the smooth ball 2 or three times. If you have a low-poly model that needs to be rounded, use 70 degrees once, followed by 15 degrees once. The amount of times you click the smooth ball determines how smooth the model will be, and the angle determines what the threshold is. 180 degrees means that all faces will be smoothed, because no two joined faces can be more than 180 degrees apart. 45 degrees smooths all faces less than 45 degrees from each other. Thus, any hard corners greater than 45 degrees would remian "hard" during the smooth. A setting of 15 smooths faces less than 15 degrees apart. Because more polygons=less angle between faces, you should using setting like 15 on high-polygon objects. In wings, to prep your model, select the edges you want to be hard (before you smooth the model!) Now bring up the menue and set the hardness level to "hard." They should turn green. Now, select all faces and smooth. The edges that were green should look the same. If there is still not alot of polygons, smooth once more. Now, select all andges and set harness to "soft." Select all faces and smooth once more. The hard edges should round out just slightly and have lots of polygons to boot. What we have done is called a non-smoothing subdivide, meaning we added more geometry to the edges without smoothing them. Now, a setting of 45 degrees in bryce should look fine. Because there are so many faces in the model alreadt, smoothing will only smooth them out, and not create Mr. Stay-Puffed.

hope this helps.

Great little tut madmax, Thanks!

Thanks, Madmax, finally I understand some of Wings and Bryce....:)

wow..that's service..hafta save this one. Appreciate all the help..always wondered what hard and soft edges were..

Great tutorial madmax_br5.