This post is not intended for advanced modelers, but I thought that it might be useful for newer users just starting to create their own props for Poser.

I modeled these cylinders in LightWave, exported the mesh in OBJ format and stuck them into Poser to render. I only used a 20 segment cylinder for a quick and easy example. I was very careful to make sure that there were no polygons with more that 4 points.

Cylinder A shows the object imported straight into Poser and rendered. Due to the default smoothing angle of 100 degrees, the cylinder turns into a marshmallow. This is great if you are modeling organic stuff like... ummmm... marshmallows.

Cylinder B is an exploded view of the same object that illustrates which group of polygons (faces) should remain welded together, and which ones should be split apart in order to create a sharp edge. (Hey, I didn't know that Poser rendered double sides... learn something new every day. Cool.)

Cylinder C is the same cylinder with all the polygons pushed back together. The number of polygons (faces) is still exactly the same. The only difference is that the number of points along the sharp edges has been doubled. The default smoothing angle is forced to stop where the mesh is no longer continuous, and allows for a nice crisp angle.

This is not too bad considering that the render engine calculates based on the number of polygons, and not points (I think). A smaller mesh with optimized geometry frees up a bit of resource that allows for more complex scenes. For secondary props this is ideal, and allows focus to be on other primary elements, like your character.

Hope this helps clarify some basic stuff regarding split vertices and sharp edges. Back to modeling! :o)

Cheers! - M

Mind Over Matter
"If you don't mind, then it don't matter."