object import - problems and surface/polygon smoothing

[mt_sabao]

Hi.
Noob question. I imported an obj, and first problem was that it was showing black. The .obj has no textures originally, but i just want the object itself. So I went into the internal structure and it had a Parts shader, I deleted this, and plugged a default shader. Now it renders properly but still shows on the viewport as a gray silhouette (even if I choose show as textured). Whats the problem here? Is there a way to have it showing on the preview?

Second thing, upon rendering the surface is faceted. see image below


on the left is the same .obj in cinema4d, Top with the phong tag, bellow without. Is there any way to smooth the faces in Terragen? I see "use smooth normals" under the object in terragen. But this doesn't seem to make anything.

Thanks

(note, both objects in cinema have the same amount of polygons)

[Dune]

You probably need to take it through Poseray and map it anyway. I've encountered your problem once or twice, with an unmapped object, turning all black. Map it anyway you want, I do planar XYZ sometimes in Poseray, is good enough. And instead of deleting the parts shader, I use the default shader in that parts shader to add procedural texture (add a transform shader to the PF set to world space). If blocky vertices appear, you may need to increase number of polys.

[j meyer]

Another thing to check is if your model is exported with normals,because
some apps don't export normals and TG does not calculate normals for
imported objects and thus smooth normals would have no effect.

Edit:this refers to the facetted look only.

[bobbystahr]

I would go with Dune's advice except I tend to use the Cubic mapping option in PoseRay....It may also fix those un-phonged effects as well as I had that happen for me on a converted Imagine3D model I'd built.

[Oshyan]

Non-image textures do not currently show up with the "textured" option in the 3D preview.

- Oshyan

[mt_sabao]

You probably need to take it through Poseray and map it anyway. I've encountered your problem once or twice, with an unmapped object, turning all black. Map it anyway you want, I do planar XYZ sometimes in Poseray, is good enough. And instead of deleting the parts shader, I use the default shader in that parts shader to add procedural texture (add a transform shader to the PF set to world space). If blocky vertices appear, you may need to increase number of polys.

Hi Dune. Thanks for your reply and your help. Just making it go through the poseray, and saving it again did the trick. The surface is smoothed now, and it no longer shows up as a black silhouette. I can now see the shader inside the parts shader. Will try to add procedural texture now.

Regarding this Transform shader, sorry about the noob question, what's its purpose and where does it go?
Thanks again for the help.

Luis

[mt_sabao]

Inside the Parts shaders, there's a default shader. I create a color shader and a displacement shader, and use a transform shader set to Use World Space. See screeshot. It all seems to work fine, it renders but the doesn't show in the the viewport preview (Object "show as textured"on the preview options). Is there a way to show the shaders on the viewport, or am I missing something?

Thanks once again for the help.

[Dune]

It won't show (yet). Only image maps will show, no procedural texturing. You'll have to croprender a part to see its effect.

[mt_sabao]

It won't show (yet). Only image maps will show, no procedural texturing. You'll have to croprender a part to see its effect.

oh crap! Thanks for your help though

[jo]

Hi,

There is some documentation about object display in the 3D Preview here:

http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Object_Display_in_the_3D_Preview

In this case I think it's the transform shaders which prevent the textures being shown in the 3D Preview.

Regards,

Jo