Hi there.

Sorry for a noob question but I can't figure it out on my own. Here's it:

when I put a default grid and a cube, envlight and area light then render them, I get that cube rendered with artifacts. I fix it with Facet then it looks ok, but when I change the material to one that has displacement - due to faceting, all sides are separated… If I remove Facet - it's all good but for shading… I tried to use creases, but I got the same results…
Can someone explain, what's the secret of good looking shading (like faceting gives) and still good looking shading when displacement takes place?

you can do some small polybevel on the edges of the cube
it will correct your shading and keep your mesh closed so displacement will not tear it apart

Which version of Houdini are you using? There were some issues with 10.0.254

Hi,

Since H9, Mantra supports vertex normals so you can check out this thread [forums.odforce.net] where I attribute promote point normals to vertex normals and the shading is what you expect.

Cheers!
steven

stevenong
Hi,

Since H9, Mantra supports vertex normals so you can check out this thread [forums.odforce.net] where I attribute promote point normals to vertex normals and the shading is what you expect.

Cheers!
steven

Thanks, Steven. That works good. But what is it for, I mean, doing some tricks to default geometry, I thought - the default stuff should render ok and the stuff you model could have issues… like in other apps?

This vertex normal problem is something SESI is aiming to fix in the future, absolutely. It's been a bit of a thorn in the side for quite some time but it's days are numbered.