I have a prop with several polygon groups.
In the group editor you can assign a smoothing id to each group so to tell Poser how much they need to be smoothed at render time. When i assign an ID (number, name????) nothing happens and the manual does not explain what should happen next...

Any smartass ideas??

Cheers, N

Current versions of Poser will not smooth across the boundary between different smoothing groups. You'll see a definite line/shading effect, if not in preview then when rendered. The degree will depend on the angle of the lighting.

Earlier versions just ignored smoothing groups.

Quote - to tell Poser how much they need to be smoothed

Nope, not how much. The groups tell Poser which polygons to be considered a single piece. Polygons in different groups are not smoothed where they come together - it is as if they are no longer welded.

When you change the groupings, then you alter whether or not the geometry of neighboring polygons influence each other or not. So something does happen, although it usually hard to see a difference unless you know what to look for.

Edit: Cross-post - dang you are fast.

They call me "Mr Smooth"

Thanks (Guru) Phill ;-),

That's exactly what I try to achieve. So some bits of the prop need to be smooth and other bits need to have sharp edges.

This is what I do:

I load the prop and click the Group editor. In the dropdown menu I see the groups I specified in Silo. I select one and click "Assign smoothing ID". A window pops up and I fill in a number (!!??) and click OK. Then the window disappears and nothing else happens. I've searched everywhere (including the manual) to find any references to the numbers I typed, to no luck. Am I missing something?

TA, N

Hi Bagginsbill,

If I understand you right I have to assign smoothing groups to polygons on one side of a edge rather than to a complete mesh (shape) within a prop. So a cube would need four ID's to get all the edges sharp??

TA, N

Did you select the adjacent group and assign that to a different smoothing group? Not sure what the defaults are but if you only assign one then Poser may take that as applying to all.

The effect can be subtle but it will be there.

You can try this test:-

In Silo create a low resolution sphere. Something like 32 lat x 16 long
Save as OBJ file.
Open the OBJ file in a text editor and scroll to the face lines.
Seed in some smoothing groups at random, something like this:-

s tom
f 539/1/539 521/2/521 506/3/506 519/4/519
s dick
f 507/5/507 522/6/522 540/7/540 520/8/520
f 537/9/537 518/10/518 506/3/506 521/2/521
f 507/5/507 518/10/518 537/9/537 522/6/522
s harry
f 539/1/539 519/4/519 508/11/508 523/12/523
f 509/13/509 520/8/520 540/7/540 524/14/524
f 1087/15/1087 523/12/523 508/11/508 735/16/735
s alphanumeric
f 509/13/509 524/14/524 1088/17/1088 736/18/736

Import into Poser and I think you'll see the facets.

It works!!

Thanks guys, makes life a lot easier....

Cheers, N