Interesting and surprisingly unsurprising. I see no advantage to this, except to keep people using Max... :\

update:-

Hi Steve, it's looking great - now it's got enough details that it looks very real.

The higher res screenshots are a lot lighter and look nice.

- Michael

WOW Steve - Nice model !

I'm really looking forward to seeing it rendered in Carrara if thats your plan ?

All the best,

Hi Michael,

>>it's looking great - now it's got enough details that it looks very real.

Thanks, it is getting there.

>>The higher res screenshots are a lot lighter and look nice.

I have been changing the default colors. It does save quite a bit of time taking the high res image directly in MoI, rather than having to mess around exporting/importing/ setting scene etc etc in a renderer.


- manz

Hi Paul,

Thanks

>>I'm really looking forward to seeing it rendered in Carrara if thats your plan ?

Yes, but I was also thinking of maybe giving it a try in Bryce, as I may add a tree or 2, and I like the trees in Bryce.


By the way, I know you have been playing with Carrara6 pro, just wondering if you have seen the current offer at DAZ. You can get Carrara6 pro/ Hexagon/ Bryce and other software, all for $200 (about £100). http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=84695


- manz

That model is looking really great - hella inspiring, BRAVO!

-Will

Hi Steve,

I'm sure whatever package you use the result will certainly have the WOW factor !

Thanks for the tip with Daz the package does look impressive for the price. I'm finding it hard at the minute with time to play in Carrara
my needs as a renderer are straight forward compared to most..I just want a simple scene and the ability to replace a model every time?

I'll look out on this forum for your Villa....If this is something you're having built im guessing its not here in the UK..LOL.

Keep smilin'

Hi Paul,

>>my needs as a renderer are straight forward compared to most..I just want a simple scene and the ability to replace a model every time?

Do you really need a renderer then?
If for example you just want a clean simple output for presentation, then why not simply use the high res output directly from MoI, it is what I have been using for the images I have recently posted to thread. (the color of model etc can be changed in the MoI ini file)

Info for high res capture http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1049.5
Currently I have it set as 3200 x 2400, then I reduce in graphics program down to 800 x 600

- manz

Another update.

Not much more to do now.

India song ;)
It's free for listening ;)
http://www.deezer.com/#music/result/india%20song

Hi Pilou,

India song? Sorry, I did not stay at the site you link to, due to attempted redirects from that site to "Valueclick"

If you are referring to Indian music (for whatever reason) then I admit little knowledge, but, I do like a lot of the remixes of western + Indian music that is about now.

- manz

it was more like that , and the mythic music of Carlos d'Alessio (this link must work)
http://lioulilliehook.vox.com/library/video/6a00e398cc6521000200f48d01b8ff0001.html
Similar mood that your architecture :exotic romantic bluesy :)

Wonderful Vill and very inspiring work.

Hi all
I have been exporting things to Carrara and learning (trying to learn) to texture them. The polygon count for a wardrobe I have made is 14,000. Reading this thread made me wonder of I should be exporting as 3ds files rather than obj. Does anyone have any advice on the best format in which to export? Someone had told me that if I wanted to make a model for use in poser I should be aiming for between 1000 and 10000 polygons.
Keith

.obj > .3ds

.3ds = old file format, allows only triangles and no normal vertex map ... I'm even not sure you can have uv's coordonate from MoI with this format.
.obj = much more advanced, allows ngone, quad and triangle, one uv's map + the vertex normal map.

the format doesn't change the final polygon count, only the options you give to the mesher tool will.

Hi Keith - generally I would only recommend .3ds as a kind of last resort option, it is a much older format and has several limitations such as a lack of smoothing information, and limits on the number of faces that can be in a single mesh object (so sometimes objects may have to be split apart).

Your best bet is to export using .obj format.

For the most compatibility, switch 2 options for OBJ export - first on the "Output", switch it to Output: Quads & Triangles. Second, it might be a good idea to hit the arrow in the bottom-left corner of the mesh export dialog to expand it to see more options, and un-check "Weld vertices along edges". That will export a more simple structure of OBJ file.

With those 2 options in place that is probably your best bet for export to Poser I think.

14,000 polygons is not a particularly huge or complex mesh, I would think that Poser should be able to handle that.

But if you want to reduce the number of polygons, move the slider to the left a bit which will produce a rougher mesh that has fewer polygons in it. But it will also get a somewhat more "jagged" type appearance.

When the mesh dialog is open, it will display a count of how many points and polygons have been generated in the upper-right corner of the main window.


But fundamentally, "smooth" (which you were asking about earlier) and "low number of polygons" do not go together, you need to generate more polygons to make a smoother shape. Since polygons are flat objects, it is just not possible to make a very smooth shape using only a very small number of them.


Hope this helps!

- Michael

Hi Michael,

re- 3ds

>>such as a lack of smoothing information,

Carrara (and some other apps) will give option on import for smoothing

>>so sometimes objects may have to be split apart

Just weld together after import.

I am not saying to use 3ds, but it is still a good option to keep file size down.

Hi Kieth,

To keep poly count down, it is a better option to use obj. I dont usually see many problems importing obj into Carrara, but do see some errors/problem with n-gons, and usually in unexpected places,... so for Carrara I would advise a need to check the model carefully on import if n-gons are made,... I do now normally export from MoI obj with Quad/triangles when importing into Carrara.


I do not use Poser, so cannot comment, but a friend of mine uses it all the time, so I will e-mail her to see what problems have been encountered.


- Steve

Hi Steve,

> Carrara (and some other apps) will give option on import for smoothing

Yeah, but in that case the smooth vertex normal will be created by averaging polygons that surround a vertex. This will only be an approximation of the true normal from the original NURBS object, and there are frequently problems with this kind of approximation in areas where there are polygons of different sizes adjacent to one another. Things like a small sized polygon will tend to have an undue weight applied to the averaging and have a visible shading effect on the larger polygon.

These problems are eliminated when you can carry the original vertex normals from the precise NURBS model to be used for the final shading.

OBJ is able to contain these normals, so that's why you can avoid many potential shading difficulties if you use OBJ format instead of 3DS, since 3DS has no facility within it to store the vertex normal information.

This all depends on your program reading the normals in from the OBJ file of course, there are some programs like Max which skip them. But I believe that Poser will use them if present.

Some programs will only use them if you turn MoI's welding option off, since some programs expect to have one normal per vertex, instead of being able to have faces that share one 3d point but have unique normals per face which is what happens if you have welding turned on. So that's why for maximum compatibility it is not bad to turn welding off for this, I probably should switch that to be off by default instead of on by default.

- Michael