@Mike53: ..what all the chat was about, but lovely renderings...
Trying to figure that out too, I think the chat is about an economy class type, trying to convince Cec to get a discount on her private jet, the drinks you get, and what life looks like through a Perrier bottle... 
In art school I learned that Hi-Res is the key word ...
...When you travel on economy, you pay less – and you get less. ... like when you compress jpegs; you loose more than you think.
Is it likely that a reflective surface can reflect it's surroundings at a higher quality than the reflective surface itself?
Ah, yes, paying attention to what teach us in school can sometimes be a good idea. As for quality vs price, you usually find me in economy class trading potential discomforts for a luxury meal at the destination. No doubt, your journey and renderings are stunning and a joy to see, but at a price I hesitate to pay when rendering is secondary....When you travel on economy, you pay less – and you get less. ... like when you compress jpegs; you loose more than you think.
Is it likely that a reflective surface can reflect it's surroundings at a higher quality than the reflective surface itself?
But still, there is no reason not aiming for the highest quality when cost is low. Such as the above .svg AnyLabel can_label_txt.svg . A design/text template: edit to any design at perfect quality regardless of scale/resolution, then convert to .png or .jpg (depending on the image) at any compression or resolution. Full control over quality vs. cost.
test where the optical density of the water was set to 1.333... a Bible for handling your mtl-files.
Very beautiful and interesting renderings. I still try to get my head around how best to combine the settings, thanks for the homework. Had a quick look and I am looking forward to being confused at a higher level.The curving is the crux:
A plane (like f.i. eTeks mirror @ 8kb) can be small, but a curved object weighing 21kb cannot possibly hold the same reflective qualities as a curved object weighing 6240kb.
True, true. And in a world where circles are represented by polygons the quality trade-off is exactly the point. A plane (like f.i. eTeks mirror @ 8kb) can be small, but a curved object weighing 21kb cannot possibly hold the same reflective qualities as a curved object weighing 6240kb.
1)Somewhere I read an article about using (Bézier) curves in .obj files. Annoyingly I cannot find it again, to check whether it is valid generally. Does anyone know?
2) The aim of the oversimplified bottle in a world of polygon 'circles', was not aiming for the perfect, but to test the EP simplification on curved objects using .obj smoothing / letting SH3D recalculate the normals. Testing cans/and bottles from pentagons to 24 sided polygons, I was pleasantly surprised that a smoothed octagon actually resembled a bottle. This I had not expected. Of course, an octagon is Economy class, but working your way up, my impression is that you will reach a level where you no longer can see a difference.
To me there is a lesson in this: how best to make curved surface models. To revisit the bottle:
- start with high resolution: a detailed polygon/curve, e.g. a 36 segment 'circle',
- create the bottle shape, still in high quality,
(then duplicate and scale/edit bottle shape to create inside, content, label etc, all grouped separately for easy later cleanup), - reduce the vertices down to acceptable level (e.g. with Blender's Limited dissolve setting max angle to around around 3° for a Perrier bottle),
- simplify the .obj file further removing normals and add smoothing.
Here the outside of the bottle in three versions. Very simple octagon vs the model Cec used. The middle one is a possible compromise with the latter using Blender to reduce surfaces, and adding smoothing in the .obj file.
Or a Crémant bottle (bottle_cremant.zip, there is a limit to how much Perrier I can drink): 18 segment 'circles' and simplified (should have added a couple more polygons vertically). Everything is smoothened, except the capsule. Not good enough for Cec' HQ renderings, but somewhere between 40 and 18 segment 'circles', there may be a compromise using smoothing where I doubt it is possible to tell the difference. Even at Cec' level. I think.
low_poly_cremant.sh3d
Of course, there are some other elements here. For the cylinder, viewed from Cec' angle, you will need lots of 'circle' segments anyway. And yes, even if the tiny models do render a lot quicker, glass and optical density and all the other cool settings, will in themselves suck up a lot of rendering time.
With all my previous mistakes in mind, I may just make a model a Rizenhoff beer glass. A not-so-subtle gift, emphasis being glass.
... and in flew Enza
And I suppose you cannot take a glass of my favourite cure... Poor you. Hope for quick recovery.ok
