Hi, this is my first post here. Please be gentle even if my question is stupid.
I saw this issue first a few days ago in an other project.
The problem is that the smooth shading is somehow not working anymore.
I created a simple example project to show what I mean. It is just a black backround, a subdivided cube, a UV sphere and area light, no modifiers. The normals are all in the right direction.
In the rendered view you can see the sharp edges of the faces.
Why is it like this? I sure that it is not supposed to look like this.
In my other project i had a normal map which made it even worse.
I think it must be some kind of general problem. Maybe it is my GPU, I have a GTX 1070.
Does somebody has any ideas?
it still is a general problem with cycles. the only way to fix that is to use subdivision modifier and or find a good other way to fix it… the subdiv modifier is a good solution that helps most of the time for that problem. Another thing is to play with the light source diameters and light strength. It gets much more in extreme when you use volumetric shaders on thin geometry. Im relay not sure and not an expert but i beliefe there is something wrong in "smooth normal" calculation happen in cycles when this kind of problem apears.... or maybe i realy dont understand it like you… it has nothing to do with your hardware!!!..good luck
