RorrKonn posted at 11:49AM Tue, 19 January 2016 - #4249900

Most app's use normal maps for smooth low polycount meshes.I've never used normal in Poser so can't say for sure.

Don't think pong shading will balloon a mesh .I think Displacement maps will balloon a mesh cause gray 50 will not balloon in or out but any other setting will.

I guess most 3D apps are aimed at game dev, and normal maps + low poly mesh is the only way to get multiple frames per second in real time? The many hours / overnight renders people seem to do in Poser aren't an option.

But it's strange that people seem to prefer bump maps to normal maps in Poser/DS when normal maps are (as far as I can tell) better ? I guess bump maps are easier to create - so many models just seem to cheat with a greyscale version of the texture.

Yeah, displacement (and/or the 'Smooth Polys' render setting) are the only things I know of in Poser/DS that cause a mesh to be rendered in a ballooned-in/out manner. (Although quads where one vertex isn't in the same plane as the other 3 also curve the rendered mesh). Great when that's what you're after, rather amusing when it isn't.

---

The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).