Hi y'all,
as the title suggests this thread is about some basics of modeling and/or preparing
3D models for use in TG and,maybe,related stuff.We'll see.
Let's start with creased or hard edges.
Hard edges are quite essential and necessary even for something totally rectangular
like a cube.
[attachimg=1]
Here is a wireframe screenie of the 96 poly cubes.
[attachimg=2]
As you can see in the above examples hard edges are important for the overall appearence
of your models especially in conjunction with TG's smooth normal feature,which is not
capable of setting one or even multiple smoothing angles.
Increasing the polycount helps to mitigate the ugly black stuff,but doesn't get rid of it.
The next example shows a UV-mapped and image textured object.
[attachimg=3]
The only difference between them are the hard eges only anything else is identical.
The normal smoothing sort of visually bulges up the sides of the brick.
One of the reasons you shouldn't model or use 4 sided tree trunks btw.
Another way to get the creased edges look would be to build your model from unwelded
planes.The outer borders of the planes are automatically treated as creased by most
render engines,as far as I know.This is a common technique that's pretty wide spread.
And one reason why it's not a good idea to simply subdivide downloaded meshes to
smooth them.
Since not every modeling software exports creases with it's obj files you should test
if your app
does.In case it doesn't there is PoseRay.
There is more to say about export features or P-Ray and other stuff,maybe we can
address that later.
Ok,that's it for now.
Feel free to participate.