POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.binaries.images : [Wings Q] 2 small .jpgs... : Re: [Wings Q] 2 small .jpgs... Server Time
11 Aug 2024 21:20:24 EDT (-0400)
  Re: [Wings Q] 2 small .jpgs...  
From: Hugo Asm
Date: 20 Jan 2004 07:48:49
Message: <400d23b1@news.povray.org>
If I understand the problem correctly, you don't want this multi-coloured
shape in POV-Ray, and you're trying to get nice, bevelled edges. The many
nuances of grey that you see in the POV-Ray rendering, are the result of
"normal interpolation". Maybe you already know this, but let me try to
explain for those who are not sure:

In Wings (and most modellers and renderers) every point in 3D-space has an
additional vector stored: the normal vector. This vector is used to enhance
the "smoothness" of surfaces, giving the impression that the model consists
of far more vertices (points) than is really the case. For example, a grid
of 2*2 points (vertices) will usually look very flat - like a rectangle - as
you can imagine. But, simply by adding 2*2 normal vectors, the surface of
the rectangle can be 'bend' so that it looks more like there was hundreds,
or even thousands of vertices between the edges. This is a well-known trick,
and well-used in 3D games today, and is also used in high-quality 3D models
as seen in movies. Rather than having a model with thousands of points very
close to each other, we use model that only consists of the most important
points, and the rest is "interpolated". It saves a lot of memory and is
faster to render. Note however that it does not *really* bend of surfaces.
It just gives a false impression that they're bend, and if the trick is
overly used, it becomes very visible and bad looking.

Your model is rendered with normal-interpolation because that's the default
setting. The normal vectors are calculated automatically by Wings and
exported in the mesh2 file. But you shouldn't give up all control to Wings -
or any other modeller. You need to keep the principle of normal
interpolation in mind, when you model... That is, if you want to *use*
normal interpolation.

But it's really very simple, once you understand the principle: Every normal
vector is automatically produced by averaging the nearby points (vertices).
There just have to BE some nearby points and for best results, they should
not be sharp edges. In other words, they should not have a very different
curvature; then the "normal interpolation" becomes too visible and begins to
look bad.

Boiling this down to a simple rule: Ensure your mesh has a good amount of
points to help the normal-interpolation. For best results, don't use too
many 3-point faces (triangles). Best results come from 4-point faces
(polygons) that look like rectangles (where all 4 edges have roughly the
same length) but there is no strict rule! But it's a good idea, in many
ways... Doing this will also solve the problem you might have with bevelling
the edges. Sometimes the bevelling feature will behave strangely is the
model is not modelled .. "correctly".

Sorry if I wrote too much nonsense. :o)

Regards,
Hugo


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