High Quality Smoothing option in latest 8.5 Beta - initial impressions

[jonmoore]

Hi All,

 

Seeing as I've been fairly vocal about smoothing errors that you often get when you export from Formz to other DCC (Digital Content Creation) packages via OBJ (or similar) in the past I promised Tech that I'd run the new high quality export option through it's paces and report back here.

 

For the test I created a simple model of the kind that would always cause problems in the past due to the fact that it has rounding connected to curved surfaces.

 

 

This is the same modal imported into 3ds Max using the old export options; the problematic smoothing issues (that are impossible to clean up without significant remodelling) are clear to see.

 

 

And here is the the same model exported with the new high quality smoothing options imported into Rhino via OBJ.

 

 

A perfect import with no smoothing issues at all.

 

Unfortunately the situation is still less than ideal depending on the DCC package you're looking to import your OBJ into.

 

3ds Max and Rhino have great import options so they will merge vertices on import and ensure faithful reproduction of the FormZ model including the material assignments.

 

 

 

C4D will import the geometry accurately (because it also merges vertices on import) but the standard C4D import engine won't read the OBJ material definition file correctly (the MTL file) so the three materials in my example will all show up as white materials. Not a deal breaker if you name your materials on FormZ before export as these types of workflow only use diffuse colours as a visual cue as all your materials set up proper will be done in the DCC package (if you own the Riptide Pro plugin the OBJ plugin will import with the correct material colours too)

 

Unfortunately Modo is more problematic as Modo doesn't merge vertices on import so you'll get something that looks like this (lots of flipped normals and unconnected surfaces).

 

 

If however you re-export the OBJ from Rhino/3ds Max into Modo you can get a good model. Running the mesh cleanup tool shows that there are still a fair few underlying geometry issues that could cause a problem downstream.

 

 

You'll also notice the colours are washed out in Modo. This is because Modo functions in a linear colour space and it's applied a double gamma to the colour table exported from FormZ. As I mentioned before this isn't an issue as the colours are only there as placeholders.

 

I did a quick back-lit render of my rather spiffy model in Modo to attempt to show up any underlying shading errors (after tweaking the colours and assigning proper physically based shaders) and the model passed with flying colours.

 

 

So in conclusion the new high quality smoothing option is a great start but I don't think it's quite battle ready yet. Ideally the mesh cleanup and vertex merging should happen within the FormZ export so the the resultant OBJ can be imported into the vast majority of DCC/rendering packages. I'd also like to see FBX included as an export option (this ones been long requested) as OBJ is getting long in the tooth and DAE is badly supported in the high end packages.

 

One other thing that would be a killer feature as part of the export would be to include the 'best fit' UV mapping as part of the export (in the background even though no actual textures are applied). This feature is one of the reasons the Sketchup is a popular rapid modeling tool with lots of artists that render via V-Ray in 3ds Max. UV mapping is the most torturous task in any DCC package so anything that gives you a leg up is a massive help. Especially considering most ArchViz work mainly uses UV mapping for procedural maps (where less accuracy is required).

 

Here's an example of the auto map generated by FormZ internally (with a procedural checkerboard so you can see where things go a tad skew whiff!)

 

 

It's nowhere near perfect but for an auto generated UV map it's more than adequate for procedural bump/normal mapping and such like. This last request is a 'nice to have' rather than an essential but it's one of those workflow things that will delight many artists when they encounter it (as it's far more accurate than the standard texture mapping options and far less work than UV mapping proper).

 

[Tech]

Hi Jonathan,

 

Thanks for your analysis and report.  Good to hear that the High Quality Smoothing option is working a lot better for you in general.

 

Yes, per y our additional email, we either need make the Export: Smooth Options: Display Resolution setting and the High Quality Smoothing work together, or make them mutually exclusive (preferably the former).

 

We will also see what we can do to improve the vertices / normal issues -- and your other suggestions for the future.

 

Thanks again for your feedback.

[jonmoore]

 

Hi Jonathan,

 

Thanks for your analysis and report.  Good to hear that the High Quality Smoothing option is working a lot better for you in general.

 

Yes, per y our additional email, we either need make the Export: Smooth Options: Display Resolution setting and the High Quality Smoothing work together, or make them mutually exclusive (preferably the former).

 

We will also see what we can do to improve the vertices / normal issues -- and your other suggestions for the future.

 

Thanks again for your feedback.

 

 

It's in a different class altogether now.

 

To be clear on the connection between Display Resolution and High Quality Smoothing. I found that it was far more reliable to set the Display Resolution to 100% in the main FormZ interface and not attempt to use bespoke mesh conversion settings within the OBJ export dialogue. 

 

Great to see so many community feedback options in 8.5.