Smoothing Group support?

[neorat]

I did a forum search on the subject (Smoothing Groups), the most recent post was back in 2005. So, needed to know if TV3D supports Smoothing Groups. Currently I am working on a low poly model. The model is finished and UVed, currently doing texture work on it. But the texture style is based on smoothing.

Examples provided below. The model is a WIP at 822tris, wrapped with a 1024x1024 color texture.

Example : No smoothing


Example : With Smoothing


If TV3D does not plan on such support, I'll need to approach the texture application and style differently. But, if TV3D does or plans on such support feature in the future, that would be great!

Anyhow, would appreciate any info on the subject.

Neorat

[newborn]

We are having quite a few problems with this in our project as well. If you ever find the answer, let us know

[sybixsus]

Game engines don't generally use smoothing groups, they have no correlation in hardware. Normally, what happens is the exporter takes care of this when you export. If two adjacent triangles belong to the same smoothing group, the shared vertices have their vertex normals set as a blended normal between the two surfaces to produce smooth lighting. If the same adjacent triangles do *not* belong to the same smoothing group, they are "unwelded", which is to say that no vertices are shared between the two triangles and thus they can each have their own vertex normal in order to produce a sharp edge between them.

So I guess the question becomes "what exporters are you guys using that are not exporting the vertex normals correctly?"

[newborn]

So I guess the question becomes "what exporters are you guys using that are not exporting the vertex normals correctly?"

TVM, what else?

[sybixsus]

Well sure, TVM, but there are a number of different exporters. If I've missed where you said which application you're using, I apologize, but I've re-read and I still can't see that information for you or the original poster.

[neorat]

I use 3DS, thus smoothing group information is stored in the face data, rather than the vertex data. So, aye it is exporter / 3D application 'possible' issues, since it depends on if TV3D supports smoothing groups, thus the question stands. Does TV3D support smoothing groups, meaning, can TV3D Engine load smoothing group data.

[jviper]

current real-time rendering engines don't suppport smoothing groups, unless you write a shader for it

[neorat]

current real-time rendering engines don't suppport smoothing groups, unless you write a shader for it

Current real-time rendering engines like Doom 3 Engine, C4 Engine, Source Engine and Unreal Engine 3 ?

[Raine]

well, besides C4, those are big engines you're naming there

[ZaPPZion]

yea good luck paying that
but i'll have a look at it as well, wanna see if it works, since that's incredibly important in my models/art

[Raine]

don't think it's working, I can recall Aurelien having problems with smoothing groups in one of our statue meshes

[jviper]

What I meant by "current real-time rendering engines" was engines that are primarily for rendering graphics, and not game engines. The game engines (outside of their rendering cores) problebly implement smoothing groups in other ways, perhaps by shader, tessellation, or other graphical illusions.

[SylvainTV]

Well for smoothing groups, it affects only normals if I remember well.
So if you export directly the file then load in Tv without recomputing normals, it should be fine.