The mesh is from 3dcafe.

Message edited on: 08/28/2004 09:51

Nice but you might want to smooth this little critter out a bit.............his head and neck especially needs looking at...0.02p

Sweet mesh to show off your set-up with. ;o) Very nice. AS

=) Yeah, it's because of the true ambience render. For some reason it really messes up unsmoothed meshes. Most likely because it calculates the additional light on a per polygon basis, thus slight angle changes will completely change the light applied to that polygon.

" Yeah, it's because of the true ambience render. For some reason it really messes up unsmoothed meshes. Most likely because it calculates the additional light on a per polygon basis, thus slight angle changes will completely change the light applied to that polygon. " umm...I thought I was told in no uncertain terms that smoothing would have no effect on this. ( Source Unknown )

I meant unsmoothed as in lower poly to begin with, if you smooth them with an external app (wings for example) a couple of times you won't have the problem.

Nice set-up thuleke, other that the remarks already stated, it is very convincing. Now I would like to say: Oh I agree Ornlu, I don't see this as a problem with TA, reflections or Bryce's smooth option. Bryce's smooth option will correct some of the unsmooth effect. But this particular model is in DFX format, the problem is the objects geometry. This object will have this unsmooth effect ( after it's been smooth in Bryce ), even when it's rendered normally. It's just not as noticeable. When you put it in a reflective environment, and render under TA, it just becomes more noticeable. Then you put some reflective properties to the object's material and it becomes even more noticeable. The only way to correct this, is to correct the object's geometry ( like you stated ). This is true with many format types, including OBJ and Bryce's local objects, if there are not enough polygons used in the model. The point is: the problem with the smoothing is not because of Bryce's smooth option, is not because of reflective materials or environments, is not because of TA, is not because of a problem with Bryce's render engine......It's because of the models geometry. To all.. if I'm sounding rude here..I'm sorry, I do not really mean to be. Now I'll step down from the podium....no need to applause....just throw me your hard earn money...lol

Yeah however, it is a problem with the bryce render engine. Most renderers have the ability to use unbroken phong shading. Which in essence smooths the face of the object much like bryce's "smooth' option, which does not alter the geometry. Most have this ability up to a certain angle. bryce's angle is just FAR less than most apps, thus this occurs. That's why when you chose to smooth to a certain angle it will smooth it likewise. If the angle of the polygon to the adjacent polygon is greater than the smooth angle, it will render broken as seen above.. However sometimes this doesn't seem to work...

thuleke, let me apologizes for cluttering up you tread with stuff you may not be interested in. Bryce's render engine does exactly what is told to do. When breaking angles are set to objects in 3D programs ( Bryce's smooth option ) it is telling the computer how to view the vertices of connecting polygons at the assigned angle ( weather they will appear smooth or not. ) It also tells the rendering engine to cast a shadow at the vertices according to the light's direction and the object's set breaking angles. To test this simply check out Bryce's smooth option under Open GL, the computer tells the video card's open GL accelerator the same inf. And the video card draws the image on the screen ( minus shadows ). Open GL has nothing to do with Bryce's rendering engine. And any of the Open GL setting will view the same as rendering minus materials shadows and raytracing. Breaking angles in all 3D apps should be set to the lowest vertices connecting angles ( in most cases the majority of connecting vertices are at the same angle).To over shoot, breaking angle in any 3D app can have unpleasant outcomes. Example: if you set breaking angle to 90, then any 90 degree corner the object may have ( like a cube ) will appear to have shading problem around the edges. ( this is true for all the 3D Apps I have rendered out of ). True some 3D apps are more lenient with breaking angles than others, that's why 3DS and DFX models always seem to have more triangulated facets then other formats. But the true problem is tessellation, not rendering engines. I mean look at the gaming industry, it does not matter how good your rendering engine is, if you do not put enough polygons in the model, the computer can not fake it looking round or smooth with no facets. I will say Bryce does have a problem in this area, that is, it does not recognize when an object has double points on the edges. When a line of vertices make up an edge ( like a cube ) Some modelers will let you put double points on that edge. So the polygons do not share the same edge. Think of a cube, the top piece polygons and a side piece polygons share the same edge, and there is a 90 degree angle between them. With double point on the edge the side piece and the top piece polygons have their own edges where the 90 degree angle meet. So the polygons do not share the same edge. With some apps when you set the breaking angle to 90 it does not smooth across this edge, because the polygon's vertices on each side of the 90 degree angle do not share the same edge. It's like it sees this double point edge as being 2 different objects. Well Bryce does not recognize this feature and smoothes across these vertices anyway.