Hi, I have a model with cylindrical and other curved parts which looks rough when rendered with Blender (all the edges are visible). With Truespace though, it looks fantastic, like it was a high poly object (and this, in realtime)! Even on the simplistic real-time renderer of Sketchup, low polys are shown as smooth surfaces without any distotion of the geometry.
So the question is: Is this possible with blender ??? :eek:
I suppose you are talking about a set smooth option. Blender 2.49b, Editing (F9), under Link and Materials panel. Note that trying to smooth faces across a high angle will show artifacting so to control what is and isn’t smooth use auto smooth or an edge split modifier. See the wiki for more details and examples.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modelling/Meshes/Smoothing
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modifiers/Mesh/EdgeSplit
Richard
Thanks Richard but after your post I tried everything and I can say that none of the tools available in Blender can come close to the perceived quality of realtime smart smoothing with graphics cards.
Unfortunately it’s like comparing a primitive technology to an advanced one.
For example, I tried a semi-cylindrical part which was cut assymetrically and had a few not very deep cuts like rings on its surface. The best that Blender’s tools and methods could do, was to subdivide it’s surface but not smooth at all the edges radially. The worst, was to destort badly or smooth out the useful edges of the object too. On the contrary, real time shaders on the TS and Sketchup seemed that they could distinguish between the important and non-important edges.
If only a realtime shader was available for Blender…
Its difficult to give possible solutions without seeing what you mean.
If you’re not getting what you need from blender I’d stick with TS and SU
Richard
You’ll probably want to add an edge split modifier if using smooth shading in order to keep the cylinder ends sharp.
Here is a sample (part.blend and part_Blender.png screenshot). The same file loaded as .obj in Truespace 7.6 in Model window and rendered in realtime in Workspace (.png screenshot). It has some flaws, but the difference is huge (I have seen much better results in most other parts of the model):
As I said use smooth shading and an edge split modifier. in 2.5 the smooth button is in the toolshelf (T). You should also make the geometry in the curved surface much better. Quads will always look better then tris in something like this to prevent artifacting.
Richard
Ok, this is unbelievable! Is it the time that dreams come true?
I spend a whole day+, searching for alternative solutions (without sleep), even different environments, even tried… Max!
I also made several attempts with these buttons, but the Wiki link above didn’t even mention that Edge Splitter is designed to be combined with the “Set smooth” function, with Edge Splitter to be applied first and “Set smooth” second, as a 100% definitely necessary pass to have any visible effect at all (and a fantastic one)!
I wonder, was that sentence difficult to be included? Such simple omissions lead everyday thousands of people to frustration and misery… no doubt about that.
Anyway, I’m grateful to you, you changed my …future! 
THANK YOU !!!
P.S. I think Blender should be called Gold Mine instead, because it has gold definitely, but you have to digg a lot to extract it! 