Dear friends! A strange thing has been happening with my models for rather long: when I am applying multicolor textures to them distinct seams (polygon edges) appear. For instance I model a sphere (of course I can use "primitives" but I intentionally modeled it and imported in different formats (3ds, dxf, obj) into Bryce in order to examine the situation thoroughly). If I need it bumped everything is OK (the seams are not seen I guess). If the surface is monocolor, it also looks quite normal, i. e. smooth (after editing mesh and making it smooth). But if a need some pattern on the surface (i. e. there is some pattern on the texture) I can distinctly see polygon edges after rendering ("naked" model doesn't have these edges). I tried to increase the number of polygons, making them as small as possible and even modeled a simple vase with >400000 polygons (filesize reached >17 Mb!) In this case either Bryce begin to complain it hasn't got enough memory or the result is the same. I tried ready made models from different sites/tutorials. The situation is the same with them as well! Is there any way out and has somebody faced similar situations? I can post a pic if it is likely to help. But perhaps the situation is a common mistake? P. S. Modeling is made in LW: spline drawing + lathe + smoothing) with great number (even up to >400000)of poligons (tripled and not - both variants have the same result). In Bryce I tried even superfine quality (antialiasing) and aggresive optimization... Thank You in advance, Anthony Pontigary.

Select the model and click on the 'E' in the little strip of icons that shows up next to it. This will take you into the smoothing editor. Set the angle you wish then click on the picture under 'smooth'. I think most imports have to be smoothed except for Wavefront objects (.obj) Sylvia

It may also be possible that the texture mapping groups are being interpreted as smooting groups. What prog are these models coming from?

Yes, post a picture

Yes, post a picture as we like to examine and analyze it fully and thoroughly and the Commission To Ensure Perfection In Bryce committee will make the appropriate decision for you to take the appropriate action and correct this simple situation next week. just kidding LOL! Just click on the "E" on the imported object and click on the Smooth object and it will smooth it out for ya. Smuthin' Rob

"If the surface is monocolor, it also looks quite normal, i.e. smooth (after editing mesh and making it smooth)." He's already done the "E"-smoothing thing. Post a pic

Uh, he doesn't have bump height set, does he?

we'll know...when we see a pic...

has the president been informed ?

Yes.

Hi, dear friends! Thank You for Your readiness to help. - I use Lightwave 7.5 to model: spline draw + lathe (24 - 360 sides)+ smoothing in "change surface" properties (q) + subpatch + triple (and without subpatch and without triple - I've tried all possible combinations before posting and bothering the Forum). Then of course I apply (up to 180 degrees) smoothing in Bryce 5.01 (i. e. latest patch applied) (clicking "E" to edit I mean :). I even tried with Bryce ready made simple objects ("egg", for instance). The result is not so distinct, but still we have edges seen with naked eye! I "played" with anti-aliasing ()quality), optimization, rays per pixel... nothing has helped! Btw I faced the same problem on another computer that had another OS (98SE, I have win2000), another LW (7.0) and Bryce 5.0 without patch applied. I also tried applying the texture without bump at all, changed texture size (i.e % in DTE). In other words it seems smoothing in Bryce doesn' t work properly though unsmooth model differs of course.

So, you are saying that if your model here has; 1.)a bump map (or) 2.)flat(mono)color on it. It's fine, looks good. BUT, if you apply a texture (I assume without a bump map), poly lines show up (as above). And, it acts like this even though you have smoothed out the model, even up to 180 degrees. That IS a mystery. But...you did say this; "I tried ready made models from different sites/tutorials. The situation is the same with them as well" It is rare that I have had downloaded meshes not smooth out completely for me. And, then you could see that it wasn't smooth whether or not you had a flat color, or texture, or most bumps applied. Let me make another post here, JUST to make sure that this one certain part of this problem is going correctly...(see next post below).

This isn't to say you don't know what you are doing, I just want to try and eliminate the simplist thing that could be affecting this problem of yours. Just want to make sure you are Smoothing out your mesh properly, in the right order, clicking EVERYTHING, and in order. 1.) Click "E". 2.) Click and slide the bar to what degree of smoothing you want. 3.) Click the actual sphere on the left-hand side! (most people miss this) You will see Bryce working on smoothing. When it's finished; 4.) Click the check mark. By the way...here is a guide to smoothing. START at 46 degrees and see what effect that has, if not good enough, do it again with whatever is SLIGHTLY over 90 degress, etc. Loading a mesh and just cranking it to 180, can sometimes have adverse effects on the mesh, making it look like hell. You might be doing all of the above correctly, like I said, just want to make sure.

This is what I used for the screen grab above. It is available in Renderosity's freestuff. It is simply called "vase" and is by Burkhard (http://www.bmuennich.de) I left out the textures that comes with it. It was smoothed out by a factor of 46 degrees. It has 10,056 polygons. AgentSmith

Thanks a lot, Agent Smith. I do the Bryce smoothing absolutely right. I'll try to play with percentage a bit and report the results. But one interesting moment is that not all patterned textures cause this effect. Some work all right and the others make us see these edges no matter what size (% in DTE) the texture is. With best regards, Anthony Pontigary.

Hmmm...strange indeed. Keep us afoot of whatever goes down. AgentSmith

As I promised I'm reporting... So, dear friends, the reason was the texture! I was advised to downsize the bumpheight to 5% and that really eleminated the "edges" effect. The texture I made (transparent & reflective with bump) was very sensitive and it caused the strange effect. Thank You all for Your help, with best regards, Anthony Pontigary.