So what is the point of making an invisible "hole" polygon?

I would suggest photo references generally so you do not have to work from memory/good weather if you are going for a realistinc look.  If, however, you are going for the "feel" of it, then memory might be better.

Quote - I've been driving into some areas where I wouldn't normally go, just looking at the older, poorly maintained buildings to get some ideas.

If this implies a dangerous location or suspicious people, I would skip the camera. :-/

cgtextures probably has photos already.

Quote - (And somewhere around Poser 6 there were also Poser Artist and Poser Debut)

Poser Debut came after Poser 8...

"So what is the point of making an invisible "hole" polygon?"

because you can. Kinda like what is the point of making a model of a sarcophagus with an erection modeled into it. Har-Har!

Sorry, couldn't resist ;)... seriously though. I'm sure somebody with a little imagination could find some use for it.

Kinda like, the ability to create a lattice in seconds using the useless hole material and the bridge function fer instance.

Waitaminute, now my smart-ass dial is really starting to wander... did this guy that is always going on about CGSociety this and that actually just ask what the use of a hole in geometry is! Guffaw!

Edit- apologies I'm beginning to fall over the troll side of the fence, getting my coat.

Quote - I would suggest photo references generally so you do not have to work from memory/good weather if you are going for a realistinc look.  If, however, you are going for the "feel" of it, then memory might be better.

Quote - I've been driving into some areas where I wouldn't normally go, just looking at the older, poorly maintained buildings to get some ideas.

If this implies a dangerous location or suspicious people, I would skip the camera. :-/

No camera, and I wouldn't want to stop long enough to take a picture.  The area used to be summer homes on a lake where people from northern Illinois, known locally as FISH or FIBs used to come.  Not that having money made them any better, they just recreated Chicago on a smaller scale.  Just one of the drawbacks of living that close to Chicago.  Now, if you see someone there, they're probably locals, and probably not in their right mind.  What they're using to have a state of altered perception of reality is what scares me.

Doric.

Quote - Kinda like, the ability to create a lattice in seconds using the useless hole material and the bridge function fer instance.

Maybe what you're calling a hole material is what I've been calling a transparent material.  Polygons can also be made hidden while working on other parts of a surface.

When I gives up, I gives up completely.  Still needs the ramp, garden tractor shed, ya know. 

Or maybe not.  Got the corrugated, still have to see how that works out.

Doric.

Edit to add, also needs hinges, lock, and whatever else I decide should go on the doors.

D.

Your monitor must be cranked up high.  Black color on your monitor should actually be black, not gray.

I have the contrast set down on them all because my bad eye doesn't like bright light.  It especially doesn't like spectral, that really drives me buggy.  Like I said, getting old ain't worth the price.

Oh, yeah.  I crank the light back to somewhere around 60%, I'm more of a cloudy day guy.

But I stumbled on this.  Wasn't aware Wings 1.5 was out, but haven't checked in a while either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5z7tGZEmFM

If this works like it seems to, Terragen height fields would be just delicious.

Doric.

Did you mean the  background black?  That's the result of converting a .png to .jpg in Irfanview, background set to black there.  but I'll check to see how it looks on the laptop, I don't use that so any settings are still factory.

Doric.

Just in general, anything colored black in your video adapter's RAM should display as black on your screen.  As in no light coming from that pixel.

If your screen brightness is cranked up, and you think everything is fine to look at.  Then you're turning down the lighting of your scenes to balance the high brightness setting of your screen.

It may be better for your eyes to set the screen brightness to normal and then use a brighter light for your scene.

If your eyes are still bothered by this, see if wearing sunglasses helps.  Also, close any window blinds/curtains near your screen so you aren't cranking up the brightness to see through any window reflections.  And point any lamps away from your screen.

This will cut down on further eye strain.

Just set this monitor back to factory settings, didn't really make much fifference. 

But, the house is dark, very dark and that's how I like it now.  Shades are drawn, drapes closed, high bookcases in front of the front windows. 

After resetting, black is still black, gray is a little lighter, I had the brightness down a little, didn't look to see what it reset to yet. 

I render at full screen,1980 X 1040 or whatever it is.  That's where Irfanview is worth it's weight, the full screen viewing that gets rid of the bright bars a top and bottom doesn't interfere with the eye.  Tried my polaroids, that doesn't work unless your head in attached at the 90 degree z rotation. Photogray only works when the light is enough to activate it, they don't darken indoors.

And maybe I just like a little less light in my renders than most.   I like moonlight scenes, but the way the eye would see them, not as a camera could be forced. 

Doric.

Set your video adapter to gamma 1.0.  Then adjust it to 1.4 - 1.8 if your eyes can handle it.

Otherwise, people have to editor your images to see them.  Kind of a pain.  If you are concerned about how coragated roofing (or whatever) looks in the dark, we should be able to see it also without reconfiguring stuff on our end.

Shawn, the "hole" material is how it is designated in Wings... It's purpose is/was to assign which faces will not be included during export. Later versions of Wings have changed this a little I think (I use version 99.53). Also, if you were to import, say, a one sided square into Wings the "blank" side of the poly is colored by this material rather than behaving as it does in poser as transparent. End result, you can see the object from the transparent side. I imagine this is what you mean also when you say transparent material.

You're a Hexagon user, how do feel about the latest free version? I had read that there were some serious stability issues but I had to test it for myself... A crash occuring within 15 minutes of starting it up was all the proof I needed. I've heard from some Hex users on the forum here that they really don't have problems with it and that perhaps it's a Mac build issue ( I'm a Mac user). I have Carrara 8.1 pro and think it's pretty solid, unfortunately I don't use it nearly as much as I should considering the investment.

Also have Carrara 5 pro, got it free through 3D world magazine cover disc ages ago.

Quote - Shawn, the "hole" material is how it is designated in Wings... It's purpose is/was to assign which faces will not be included during export. Later versions of Wings have changed this a little I think (I use version 99.53). Also, if you were to import, say, a one sided square into Wings the "blank" side of the poly is colored by this material rather than behaving as it does in poser as transparent. End result, you can see the object from the transparent side. I imagine this is what you mean also when you say transparent material.

Ok.  Hiding is what I'm used to it being called.  Most modeling apps I've used let you select parts of a mesh (or select meshes in a group of meshes) to hide so they are not exported to OBJ.  I do this all the time.  Some apps use material name to select what to hide/show depending on what polygons have such material assigned.  I used Wings3D when it was version .8 or .9, but didn't understand the GUI all that much.  Reminded me too much of 3DCrafter's GUI.

Quote - You're a Hexagon user, how do feel about the latest free version?

I love Hexagon 1.21.  That was the last bug-free version before DAZ3D took it over.

Quote - I had read that there were some serious stability issues but I had to test it for myself... A crash occuring within 15 minutes of starting it up was all the proof I needed. I've heard from some Hex users on the forum here that they really don't have problems with it and that perhaps it's a Mac build issue ( I'm a Mac user).

Hexagon 2.0 was very buggy and later versions still are.  Some people don't mind the crashing, and will state how all software crashes as their excuse.  3D-Coat does a much better job of sculpting and painting/texturing than Hexagon 2.x ever could, and it doesn't crash on me ever.

Quote - I have Carrara 8.1 pro and think it's pretty solid, unfortunately I don't use it nearly as much as I should considering the investment.

I stopped with Carrara 5.1 Pro because it's stable and didn't have DAZ3D code creeping into it.  I tried 6 and 7, but only have 5.1 installed.  It is the perfect OBJ exporter/converter.  Carrara in general is dog slow at rendering.  Almost as slow as Bryce in GI rendering.

Vue, on the other hand, is much faster at rendering than Carrara.  Vue 9.5 was the last good version before bugs totally ruined it though.  Bugs have gotten worse from Vue 10 to 10.5 to 11.  Quality of workmanship or craftsmanship (whatever you call it) does not exist at e-on software.  Some users swear by it, and say Vue 11 is the bees knees, but in the same breath they will also say that all software is buggy and that no software is perfect.  These are people using current computer hardware and OSs, that Vue was written for, saying this nonsense.  Vue 9.5 Infinite does not crash on my system.  I'm doing a quick Poser walk cycle in it now of V3.

Quote - I used Wings3D when it was version .8 or .9, but didn't understand the GUI all that much.  

I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think the Wings UI is its best feature, I wish more apps were designed that way. Everything is in the right-click context menus (with advanced options if you want them), so it only offers you tools appropriate to your current selection, everything else is hidden from view, no clutter, no confusion. 

And if context menus are a bit slow for certain tasks, assigning a keyboard shortcut in Wings couldn't be easier.

"I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think the Wings UI is its best feature, I wish more apps were designed that way. Everything is in the right-click context menus (with advanced options if you want them), so it only offers you tools appropriate to your current selection, everything else is hidden from view, no clutter, no confusion"

 

Couldn't agree more ! I hate alien spaceship UI's or those that expect you to memorize thousands of cryptic shortcuts and being a speed typist.

I'm using 1.4.1 with the ManifoldLab plugin so I can do booleans and other useful stuff.

"Hole" and hiding vertices are two different things, btw.

If you assign "hole" to a polygon, it is gone. (If it was a single n-gon, you can "un-hole" it again by right clicking on an adjacent polygon.)

A hole will not be exported so you get a truly one-sided/hollowed out object in Poser.

Hiding vertices is only temporary to get them out of the way if they clutter your viewport. They will be automatically un-hidden during export.

This better?

Yes.  You're getting warmer.

Quote - "Hole" and hiding vertices are two different things, btw. If you assign "hole" to a polygon, it is gone. (If it was a single n-gon, you can "un-hole" it again by right clicking on an adjacent polygon.)

A hole will not be exported so you get a truly one-sided/hollowed out object in Poser.

Hiding vertices is only temporary to get them out of the way if they clutter your viewport. They will be automatically un-hidden during export.

So is Wings3D one of those apps where if I ask six users what HOLE is for, I'll get six different answers?

Quote - So is Wings3D one of those apps where if I ask six users what HOLE is for, I'll get six different answers?

Why woud it be any different?

Doric.

Two things:

Quote - But, the house is dark, very dark and that's how I like it now.  Shades are drawn, drapes closed, high bookcases in front of the front windows.

Bold mine.  Having worked security as long as I did, we were responsible for (among other things) building evacuation drills.  Unless you have several doors leading to the yard, my concern is if something goes wrong and you are trapped inside.  It is your house, but you are one of us, so . . . just saying.  In Alaska, we get a lot of sun in the summer, so many people stick aluminum foil to the windows to keep the light out - dark trash bags can melt if the house is heavily insulated and not vented properly, as a neighbor found out.  :)

2)  What is that thing connecting the tall pole to the roof?  Even if I could see it better, I probably still would not know that it was.

After 35 years and more in the same house, I can get around in the dark pretty well.  If I had to get out, lots of things to throw through windows.

2: Unless you mean the shadow to the back, the light pole just sticks through the roof.  3 lights in the scene, one in the yard light, one infinite to act as the moon, one inside. nothing else holding it to the roof. click image for bigger.

Doric.

The shadow of the light on the pole made it look like a solid object. I forgot we can click to enlarge.  :p