I'm trying to get things to render with hard edges in Poser (I'm using version 5). The model here is an Octagon from Wings 3d. What I've done is hardened the edges, then beveled them by .005 (something someone recommended once), and UVMapped (this is a UVMap test, as is obvious by the excessive number of textures).

Now - in the 'normal' mode, all is as it should be. However, in Production (or presentation, or whatever it is; I shoulda left Poser up) mode, I get this 'plumped/melted/rounded/smoothed' effect.
Unchecking 'smooth polygons' works just fine, however, it's kind of annoying handing out freebies to people who don't know to do that (we all hope people read the Readmes, but to be honest?...;)

Is there some sort of 'magic' method of smoothing, or beveling, or arranging things so they don't swell up? Just let me know. Thanks

Pakled, in Poser, where your dials are, there's an option to smooth polygons, turn that off. For some reason if thats on in P5 it does that no matter what you do in your modeling program. At least thats the way things are to the extent of my knowledge. Maybe someone else knows another way, but thats all I've ever heard of to fix that.

Hope that helps.

D.

Quote - ...Unchecking 'smooth polygons' works just fine, however, it's kind of annoying handing out freebies to people who don't know to do that (we all hope people read the Readmes, but to be honest?...;)

You can turn off smooth polys for your prop or any actor of your figure by editing the pp2/cr2...

Do a search for "smoothPolys 1" and replace with "smoothPolys 0" (without the quotation marks).

As of Poser 6 you can change this behaviour for each prop/actor from within Poser, as of Poser 7 you can also add smoothing groups using individual smoothing angles.
 

I thought there was an object properties option in Poser to set the smoothing angle?  Something like don't smooth any edge that has an angle of 50 degrees or more.

Maybe version 5 doesn't have it?  I'm using Poser 6 these days.

6+ has smoothing angles you can set.
5 only has Smoothing on/off in properties - not sure if setting crease angles will have any effect in 5.

If I crease edges in Carrara and export as OBJ into modo, modo will retain those creased edges I made.  Maybe Poser 5 will retain creased edges?  Does Wings 3D crease edges for OBJ export?

I'm not sure if 5 will... the set angle was introduced in 6.

well easy enough to try!

I find that if a 3D program doesn't have edge creasing, it will use whatever creased edges it finds on a model.  This is for OBJ format though.  Carrara will leave creased edges alone on an imported model until you over-ride them with your own crease settings.

Hmm..ok..
I think the best option's probably going to be editing the pp2 (although this happens while it's still an obj).  Most of it just sounds like limitations in Poser 5.

Yeah, P5 just has a check box to turn smoothing off/on. If I model 'organically', it seems to be fine with that, but organic modeling (like organic chemistry), is way harder than inorganic...;)

Thanks all, I'll see what I can do. If it works out, I have a few hundred freebies to post...;)

Ok.  Then the other option is to manually add edges to your models to allow creasing where Poser insists on smoothing.

UVMapper's split vertices tool can also help.

hmm...I keep starting Uvmapper (I use the internal Wings one mostly), but I never seem to finish Uvmapper. Well, good thing there's a UVMapper forum...;) Off we go.

Thanks Phil, used one of your freebies in my last pic...

Just be careful you don't get in the habit of modeling that way.  If you look at objects in the real world, you rarely find them with such straight sharp edges and coners on them (unless the only objects you find are well cut diamonds or Lego blocks).

Also, most 3D programs used today prefer that you always use polygon smoothing while modeling anything.  You can still create edges and you have control over their sharpness.

Before you go splitting all your vertices try doing an inner extrude on each face that needs to be kept flat.
I think wings calls that an "Inset".

I've no idea if it will work with Poser 5 but it normally triggers an edge detection when a bevel fails.

Though its at the cost of more geometry.

Poser should be ok with it as long as there are no n-gons.