Set Smooth: Shader Algorithm or Mesh Construction?

[Crystalfur]

Now, according to the Blender doc, http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modeling/Meshes/Smoothing, "Activating the smoothing features doesn’t actually modify the object’s geometry; it changes the way the shading is calculated across the surfaces, giving the illusion of a smooth surface."

Does CS have this type of shader or is it all in the mesh construction (vertices, faces)?

When I export a mesh with the solid setting using blender2crystal, I get the vertices I would expect. But when I set smooth in Blender, the mesh gets exported with additional vertices, leading me to believe that it's all in the mesh and not in the shader.

[res]

It is, basically, in the construction of the mesh.

IIRC Smoothing affects the _normals_ of the mesh: when enabled, they're computed from combining the normals of neighbouring triangles; when disabled, the triangle normal is simply taken.

Note that CS works differently: it always expects one normal per vertex. Smooth or not smooth looks depend on how the mesh is constructed. (Smooth: a vertex is shared by multiple triangle corners; not smooth: each corner has it's own vertex.)
So it's kind of weird that you get _more_ vertices with smoothing, as typically smoothing means less vertices needed. Can't say what the issue is (maybe a real bug, maybe there is something else that makes the exporter split vertices.)

[Crystalfur]

That clarifies things. About b2c's exporting more vertices, I may have been mistaken. I'll check it out when I get back to my desktop.

I'll have to test shared vertices and independant vertices for smooth and solid looks.

Danke

[Crystalfur]

Ugh. I was wrong. You were right.

res++

Alright.. here is the export of a simple cube set to SMOOTH:

Code:

<v x="1" y="-1" z="1" nx="0.577349" ny="-0.577349" nz="0.577349"/>
<v x="1" y="-1" z="-1" nx="0.577349" ny="-0.577349" nz="-0.577349"/>
<v x="-1" y="-1" z="-1" nx="-0.577349" ny="-0.577349" nz="-0.577349"/>
<v x="-1" y="-1" z="1" nx="-0.577349" ny="-0.577349" nz="0.577349"/>
<t v1="3" v2="2" v3="1"/>
<t v1="3" v2="1" v3="0"/>
<v x="1" y="1" z="0.999999" nx="0.577349" ny="0.577349" nz="0.577349"/>
<v x="-1" y="1" z="1" nx="-0.577349" ny="0.577349" nz="0.577349"/>
<v x="-1" y="1" z="-1" nx="-0.577349" ny="0.577349" nz="-0.577349"/>
<v x="0.999999" y="1" z="-1" nx="0.577349" ny="0.577349" nz="-0.577349"/>
<t v1="7" v2="6" v3="5"/>
<t v1="7" v2="5" v3="4"/>
<t v1="1" v2="7" v3="4"/>
<t v1="1" v2="4" v3="0"/>
<t v1="2" v2="6" v3="7"/>
<t v1="2" v2="7" v3="1"/>
<t v1="3" v2="5" v3="6"/>
<t v1="3" v2="6" v3="2"/>
<t v1="5" v2="3" v3="0"/>
<t v1="5" v2="0" v3="4"/>

SOLID:

Code:

<v x="1" y="-1" z="1" nx="0" ny="-1" nz="0"/>
<v x="1" y="-1" z="-1" nx="0" ny="-1" nz="0"/>
<v x="-1" y="-1" z="-1" nx="0" ny="-1" nz="0"/>
<v x="-1" y="-1" z="1" nx="0" ny="-1" nz="0"/>
<t v1="3" v2="2" v3="1"/>
<t v1="3" v2="1" v3="0"/>
<v x="1" y="1" z="0.999999" nx="0" ny="1" nz="-0"/>
<v x="-1" y="1" z="1" nx="0" ny="1" nz="-0"/>
<v x="-1" y="1" z="-1" nx="0" ny="1" nz="-0"/>
<v x="0.999999" y="1" z="-1" nx="0" ny="1" nz="-0"/>
<t v1="7" v2="6" v3="5"/>
<t v1="7" v2="5" v3="4"/>
<v x="1" y="-1" z="1" nx="1" ny="4.47034e-008" nz="-2.83122e-007"/>
<v x="1" y="1" z="0.999999" nx="1" ny="4.47034e-008" nz="-2.83122e-007"/>
<v x="0.999999" y="1" z="-1" nx="1" ny="4.47034e-008" nz="-2.83122e-007"/>
<v x="1" y="-1" z="-1" nx="1" ny="4.47034e-008" nz="-2.83122e-007"/>
<t v1="11" v2="10" v3="9"/>
<t v1="11" v2="9" v3="8"/>
<v x="1" y="-1" z="-1" nx="-2.83122e-007" ny="-1.04308e-007" nz="-1"/>
<v x="0.999999" y="1" z="-1" nx="-2.83122e-007" ny="-1.04308e-007" nz="-1"/>
<v x="-1" y="1" z="-1" nx="-2.83122e-007" ny="-1.04308e-007" nz="-1"/>
<v x="-1" y="-1" z="-1" nx="-2.83122e-007" ny="-1.04308e-007" nz="-1"/>
<t v1="15" v2="14" v3="13"/>
<t v1="15" v2="13" v3="12"/>
<v x="-1" y="-1" z="-1" nx="-1" ny="-1.3411e-007" nz="2.23517e-007"/>
<v x="-1" y="1" z="-1" nx="-1" ny="-1.3411e-007" nz="2.23517e-007"/>
<v x="-1" y="1" z="1" nx="-1" ny="-1.3411e-007" nz="2.23517e-007"/>
<v x="-1" y="-1" z="1" nx="-1" ny="-1.3411e-007" nz="2.23517e-007"/>
<t v1="19" v2="18" v3="17"/>
<t v1="19" v2="17" v3="16"/>
<v x="1" y="1" z="0.999999" nx="2.38419e-007" ny="2.08616e-007" nz="1"/>
<v x="1" y="-1" z="1" nx="2.38419e-007" ny="2.08616e-007" nz="1"/>
<v x="-1" y="-1" z="1" nx="2.38419e-007" ny="2.08616e-007" nz="1"/>
<v x="-1" y="1" z="1" nx="2.38419e-007" ny="2.08616e-007" nz="1"/>
<t v1="23" v2="22" v3="21"/>
<t v1="23" v2="21" v3="20"/>