RorrKonn posted at 11:49AM Tue, 19 January 2016 - #4249900

Most app's use normal maps for smooth low polycount meshes.I've never used normal in Poser so can't say for sure.

Don't think pong shading will balloon a mesh .I think Displacement maps will balloon a mesh cause gray 50 will not balloon in or out but any other setting will.

I guess most 3D apps are aimed at game dev, and normal maps + low poly mesh is the only way to get multiple frames per second in real time? The many hours / overnight renders people seem to do in Poser aren't an option.

But it's strange that people seem to prefer bump maps to normal maps in Poser/DS when normal maps are (as far as I can tell) better ? I guess bump maps are easier to create - so many models just seem to cheat with a greyscale version of the texture.

Yeah, displacement (and/or the 'Smooth Polys' render setting) are the only things I know of in Poser/DS that cause a mesh to be rendered in a ballooned-in/out manner. (Although quads where one vertex isn't in the same plane as the other 3 also curve the rendered mesh). Great when that's what you're after, rather amusing when it isn't.

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The 3Dcheapskate (also available in DAZ and HiveWire3D flavours) occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.