Bryce not honoring smoothing in obj files

Fencepost52

This may be a known problem, but I can't seem to find any information about it.  I've created a number of obj files in Wings that have a fairly high polygon count.  When I import them into Bryce, they come in smoothed, as they should and look fine.  However, when I save/re-open the file, the objects show as unsmoothed.  For small poly objects, re-enabling smoothing wouldn't be a big deal, a chore maybe, but I could live with it.  Unfortunately, it can take a half hour or more to smooth a high poly object.  I thought saving it to the Bryce Create Lab might resolve the issue, but it doesn't.  The thumbnail looks perfect, but as soon as it's brought into the Bryce file, it disables smoothing.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Art

Rashad Carter

This is a very strange behavior. I've honestly never encountered this issue with Bryce in any version since the beginning. Once imported and smoothed, it should remain that way. I should ask just how many polygons is the file? Secondly, are there amny boolean opeations or anytying happening.

Bryce is glacially slow with smoothing operations. I've never understood why. Free UV Mapper pro is super fast at smoothing. Worst case scenario, open the mesh in another app like UV mapper and re-apply smoothing. Best of luck.

Horo

Fencepost - I haven't observed this problem yet, Art. As far as speed of smoothing is concerned, there's an Easter Egg to speed it up six-fold if you can do without the progress report: hold down the [Alt]-key, then click on the icon.

Rashad - if I remember correctly, Zviadi had implemented that one.

Fencepost52

Thanks, Rashad and Horo.  I just figured out this is a Wings 3D issue and not Bryce.  Older models from previous versions of Wings work perfectly, but the newer versions of Wings create the problem files.  I'll contact the Wings developer and see if there's a fix or if I'll have to stick with an older version.

Horo, thanks for the tip about smoothing. I wasn't aware of that.

c-ram

Art : try to save your objects files as .3ds or .fbx. with wings3d before importing them in bryce. Maybe it can solve your problem.

Dave Savage

That's what I was just going suggest too c-ram. .3ds is what I try if I have any issues saving as .obj

 

It's also possible that the hidden options saving from Wings as .obj may have changed so try looking in the little tab to the right (I think it's ALT Click or maybe just a right click).

Fencepost52

Thank you, c-ram and Dave.  I'll try the other formats and see how it works.  I reset my prefences to the defaults and it still did it. But, I still will let the developer know just in case there's a bug in the mix. :)

Horo

Art - I run Wings 1.5.3, which version do you run?

Fencepost52

I was running the newest unstable release 2.something and then I went back to 1.5.4 and it still did it.  However, 1.5.3 works perfectly.

Horo

Thanks Art. So I'm not going to update at the moment and stay on the save side.

Rashad Carter

Horo said:

Fencepost - I haven't observed this problem yet, Art. As far as speed of smoothing is concerned, there's an Easter Egg to speed it up six-fold if you can do without the progress report: hold down the [Alt]-key, then click on the icon.

Rashad - if I remember correctly, Zviadi had implemented that one.

Your memory is sharper than mine. Thanks for the reminder. 6 fold is a big improvement.

Fencepost52

Ok, I think I've figured out what's going on, but don't understand the "why".  I had 2 different versions of Wings installed on my box. Originally, I had a stable and unstable version. Then I decided to have 2 different stable versions installed, but the un-smoothing still happened.  I deleted all versions and started with a clean slate, installing each one individually.  What I've found is that Wings doesn't play well with itself.  I updated to the most recent stable version, 1.5.4, and only have it installed, and everything in Bryce world is as it should be.

Hmmmm....well, at least we know the what.