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trouble with smoothing
Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 11:31 pm
by lghtstrm
This is driving me crazy. I am rendering 3 wine bottles, with glass and liquid. I have set smoothing to 120 and they are still faceting, though some, more than others for no apparent reason.
Plus when I close MaxwellStudio, then reopen, all my smooth setting are back to FLAT. So I'm wondering whether the mxs file is really loading into render correctly.
Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.
Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 9:10 pm
by lghtstrm
Ok. I solved the problem by myself, but I thought I share what I learned.
First of all, no amount of smoothing will help if you don't have enough polygons to start with. If you are doing a close up of very curved surfaces it became evident that you need to up the polys on your model very high to get really clean lines. (Going from a nurbs model to a polymesh I set my tolerance to .001)
I would still add smoothing but 60-90 is plenty once you have started with more detailed geometry.
Anyway, now it's rendering nicely.
Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 7:47 am
by itsallgoode9
would you mind showing your before and after shots? Even though you were able to fix the problem, it sounds like there might be something else causing an issue that should've been able to be fixed just with smoothing. Even if that's not the case I'm sure it'd be a good example for other that run into your problem!
Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 12:24 am
by lghtstrm
I didn't save many of the "before" shots, but here is one that is pretty typical of what was going on.
Here is before and after:
The render is not complete, but as I notice on closer inspection, even on the "after" there is still some faceting
in the reflection on the left:
Feedback welcome.
Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 11:03 am
by JorisMX
What software are you using?
I get renders like these when smoothing is deactivated by the main app (in my case cinema4d).
So I guess it would depend if you're working in Studio or via plugin.
Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:53 pm
by lghtstrm
Modeling is in SolidThinking. There is a plug-in for MaxwellRender but it's buggy for me right now so I am importing the 3ds file into Maxwell Studio and applying shaders, etc. there.
The smooth angle in Solid is set at 90 for this model.
Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 6:50 pm
by JorisMX
Hrm...
I don't know solid. But I remember people talking about certain solid contruction apps that are difficult to export to maxwell.
Perhaps you should ask a few of the solidworks people in the subforum?
Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 7:05 pm
by lghtstrm
Not SolidWorks.
SolidThinking.
No forum for that.

Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 7:24 pm
by JorisMX
Yes, I understand the difference.
I was just saying, these "solid" modellers use the same form of modelling right?
And since I've heard ppl using Solidworks have the problems you describe, I would suggest to give a shot.
Asking a Q won't hurt, right?
Re: trouble with smoothing
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 7:41 pm
by lghtstrm
Ah. Didn't know they were similar.
Thanks for the tip. If anything comes of it, I'll let you know.