Maya subdivDisplaySmoothness ?

bloodmoon

Hello,

I have a short question..that I tripped over recently.

What level of subdivDisplaySmoothness is regular? I've always used the blocky 1 when working and rendering. And now I've seen people use level 3 for a really smooth look.

But what do people use the third level preview for? Since it's not really the actual polys right?

Or am I wrong here..

Is it for highpoly transfermaps or just a preview?

(Default shortcuts on the keyboard 1, 2, 3)
subdivDisplaySmoothness -smoothness 1;
subdivDisplaySmoothness -smoothness 2;
subdivDisplaySmoothness -smoothness 3;

Thanks

elte

Since maya 2009 I believe, when you press '3', mental ray (not maya software renderer) will automatically connect necessary node and render it smooth for you so you don't have to worry with setting up. Before that you have to actually manually do it.

HitmonInfinity

The three key is a subD approximation. It shows you a preview of what it would look like subdivided. Like Bloodmoon said, Maya 09 and up will render it by default. However, if you are using the mesh for baking to low poly, you will have to subD the mesh manually. Doing so really slows your performance down, so the three key saves computing power and most importantly, time. Not to mention you can still wrangle verts/edges/poly in 3 mode without worrying about a dense mesh. I use subD modeling for ease and results. My models look better, with less work. Working in "1-mode" all the time is time consuming and a bit unforgiving if you need to change something.

Also, if you do smooth manually and want it to smooth like the 3 key does, make sure you change the subdivisions to 2 or more, and make sure perserve Selection Borders and Geometry Borders are unchecked. (Mesh-smooth)

Sorry if that's more info than you asked for. (It took me a while to figure those things out!)