I just noticed that sculpting mode (a mode that I almost never use) isn’t able to subdivide the faces. I know nothing about sculpt-modelling, but I am pretty sure that this is a very basic feature for this kind of technique.
So, is it planned for blender?
Another simple question: I noticed that Blender isn’t very fast to display high-poly models, maybe my vga doesn’t have a good OpenGL performance. Is it possible to run Blender in DirectX mode,or something? Because i don’t care to use Windows, i just don’t want to change my vga, and the other 3D programs are able to display 2-3x more polys in DX mode.
You should add a multires modifier to subdivide faces. Invidual faces cannot be subdivided in Blender (not unless you’re using the usual non-modifier tools, at least).
Direct3D (DirectX contains a lot more than just 3D) is not possible in Blender, it’s all written using OpenGL.
I didn’t mean Multires… but something like “LOD Subdivision”, or “Adaptive Subdivision”, or whatever they call it. I think it should subdivide the faces as needed, only the faces affected by the brush.
Man… I seriously doubt that no-one had thought about such feature before…
Farsthary is developing such feature. I think the development is stalled at the moment, but I think he intends to pick it up. So no word if or when we’re going to see such feature in blender…
They have thought of it but the code was removed from the sculpting branches because it is still experimental. But seriously though its nice it is not exactly a deal breaker or I can’t possibly do any work without this kind of feature. You can do plenty with what is there so why don’t you give it a real chance and work on something.
But if you seriously want this get sculpt tris I think its still freely available.
I have a fairly old (By today’s standards) GTX260 and it can quite easily handle 30 million polygons while sculpting, a little less while modelling, but still it isn’t exactly slow.
Also there is no chance of Direct X as far as I’m aware as it’s only for Windows and as you know Blender needs to run on Linux and Mac OSX as well.
@tyrand monkey: i actually don’t even need sculpting mode at all :). thanks for the sculptris tip… too bad it was bought however. and it isn’t cross-platform :(.
edit: @Daniel: DirectX could be optional, only on Windows platform, as OpenGL has poor performance on some cards and DX always is fully supported. WOW… if a GTX260 is old, my poor GX2 is ancient
I am pretty sure that this is a very basic feature for this kind of technique.
Depends what you consider as “basic”. It’s very useful (mainly when you sculpt everything from - let’s say- a sphere) but not absolutely necessary. If you model a proper base mesh before using the sculpt tools auto subdivision is a great add but you don’t “need” it to do something.
Anyway someone is working on it and it should be implemented in a not so far future
(it’s called Unlimited Clay if you want to have a look)
EDIT: oops, by the time I write this, you already had your answer :o
thanks for the sculptris tip… too bad it was bought however. and it isn’t cross-platform .
with all the improvements coming to the sculpt mode with the gsoc, blender will have a similar toolset anyway
Graphicall seems to be infected at the moment… I’d just wait a few days until the sites back up and then download an unlimited clay version, or just search for it on the forums, there are people who upload their own builds and they will still be available.
By the way your GX2 will, in Blender be considered a single 9800 card so you won’t get the performance of the two cards, this will be the same story for any 3D modelling/ animation application.
Personally I find openGL offers much better performance than Direct X when it comes to applications like Blender and offers much more stability.
What are you other spcs (CPU and RAM) they play a very important role in performance.
Maybe OpenGL doesn’t support single-slot-dual-gpu VGAs. Maybe that’s why it has half the DX performance. The other specs are good (Q9550, 6GB@800).
Some games like GTA4 doesn’t support the other vga core and only uses one core and half of the vga memory.
Some others like Crysis supports it and i have performance similar to a GTX280.
As far as I’m aware no 3D application makes use of dual video cards, none at all, regardless of what it’s using (Direct X or OpenGL).
As for games that’s an entirley different story.
Your poor performance may be down to driver/ display settings and/ or the settings you’ve selected in the user preferences, trying playing about with the drawing methods (Don’t leave it on Automatic) and try turning on/ off VBO’s.
What are the specs of the model that’s causing the slow down, if your simply sub-dividing a mesh with out using a multi-res modifier and your in normal object mode then there will be slow downs.
