Looks like our forum has gone into hibernation for a bit... let's see if we can get it jump started again. :o) I've finished work on a simple bladed weapon for use in Poser. As most of you already know Poser (4) has a default smoothing angle of 100, which makes things look bloated and puffy. This works fine for characters and pillows but not simple mechanical, or non-organic, models. I've modeled this in LightWave 3D, keeping in mind that Poser also prefers tris-and-quads over n-gons. I don't really mind about the non-planar polygons, because Poser is going to smooth all those out anyway. Will post a bit more. :o) Cheers! M

Rather than trying to imagine what Poser will do to my model, I change the smoothing threshold of my surfaces to 100.0 in LightWave to simulate what would happen. It then becomes easy to see where I need to split vertices to give my model the sharp edges it needs. M

If I didn't split the vertices... this is what Poser would do to my mesh. This bloating effect is most obvious on the grips and guard. M

The way I set up my surfaces makes it easy to pick out different parts of the blade, making it pretty simple for splitting vertices, and for painting a uvmap texture image later on. The screen grab above shows, in alternating layers, where I have split vertices. M

Above is a non-surfaced render of the mesh in LightWave 3D *(top half of image)*, and in Poser *(bottom half of image)*. The lighting set up is very different between the two renders, and I forgot to turn down the specular highlights of the default Poser materials. But, I guess you can see that by using split vertices, you can pretty much guarantee that what you model in one application will produce predictable results in Poser. Since the actual mesh is very light *(only 1,775 polygons)* it will free up some memory for any texture images you need to use. Hope that these insights were a bit useful. :o) Cheers! M

Excellent modeling and thanks for the tips for using LW models in Poser.

Cool Moe.

If you have a model, and you don't have a modelling program, or you don't know how to split vertices, you can just import the model into UVMapper (free version will do) and use the split vertices option. Obviously a bit more crude than doing it in the actual modelling program, but useful for most mechanical, non-organic objects.

Great tip, numanoid! But, in UVMapper, how do you go about controlling which vertices should be split ans which ones shouldn't. Really curious to hear how that is achieved outside of a modeling program. Thanks for your input. :o) M P.S. waves to billy-home Hiya matey!

Imagine trying to split vertices on a model like this. I just put it in UVMapper, said split vertices, and it looks fine. Like I said, only for non-organic models.

PS. I don't know how it is achieved, I lust know it worked.

Ha ha ha, I lust know. I do!!!!! Supposed to read "just know"

Cool tips from you both!!

Not sure if this would work with UVMapper, but if you select a part and then tell it us split the vertices, it may only split the selected part. Dunno for sure, must try it one day. Billy

LOL tell it us split, meant "tell it to split", numanoid your contagious mate.

Attached Link: Blade Texturing

I've decided to take this discussion a step further and to jump forums, so I posted the thread above to the **Texturing Forum**. Cheers! M

Wow! I didn't even know there was a texturing forum, but will go check it out!

Hi, Moe! Yes, splitting vertices will certainly help the appearance of a model imported into Poser. Yes, importing a model in UV Mapper "classic" will allow one to do this, however (We knew there'd be a "however"), one can NOT select which vertices or material zones. It's either all or nothing. However (What? Another "however"?), UV Mapper Pro overcomes this limitation. Yes, it does cost 50 bucks. I bought it a few weeks ago and I must say I don't regret my purchase. As an example, here's Xonxost's Poser adaptation of James Murphy's excellent Dalek mesh. On the left is how it would normally render in Poser, that infernal shading algorithm smoothing the slats of the "skirt". On the right is the same model after I optimized the .OBJ in UVM Pro. No new faces have been added, rather, a few degenerate and concave facets were "cleaned up". I've been having a field day "optimizing" various models to render better in Poser. Also, now that I have this tool, I'm starting to model goodies I hope to eventually donate to the freebie section. I had hestitated because my efforts, while looking decent within TrueSpace, looked horrible within Poser. I'll show one or two of those in a follow-up post. Sincerely, Bill

Coolness, Bill. This is the kind of sharing of tips and tricks that would really be nice to see around here. :o) Could you please start a new thread so that folks can see that we haven't all dozed off. :o) Appreciate it lots! Cheers! M

Will do, Moe! I can create two separate threads as I'm juggling two projects at the moment. OT, say, what special keystroke is used to generate the symbol above the "o" in your name? I feel like I'm misspelling or virtually mispronouncing it. 8-/ Sincerely, Bill

Newbie here....what does splitting vertices do? How does it make a model render better in Poser?

See post number 17. Splitting vertices gives you sharp angles on non-organic objects. Because Poser is made for people and organic things, it tries to smooth everything. Splitting vertices let's you get harder edges. More advanced modelling programs let you specify the angle of splitting, but Poser is not a modeller, and you need to use an external program to do this. UV Mapper is free and does a very good job.

Great, thanks! I have UV Mapper Pro and I am working on something right now. I may just try the split vertices and see what happens!

There is one small problem with just splitting the vertices of a model without actually making sure first they all need to be split, on things like cylinders and spheres where you need the smoothing, every individual polygon will have a sharp edge which will in some cases ruin the look of the model, it's sometimes easier,(though usually still long winded), to use a proper modelling prog to split the vertices, where you can select just the parts you need to be sharp. Cheers Billy Billy

LOL, there's an echo in here

Thanks, Billy-home, I may not want to do it then, because I do have some parts of my prop that are rounded, half cylindrical shapes. Maybe I'll save it under a different name and try it out just for the heck of it ;-)

With UV Mapper Pro, you can select individual vertices for splitting. When you make your model, make the rounded objects like cylinders and spheres seperate groups, and when you split vertices just do it group by group, and don't do the rounded objects.