Geometry rendering faceted

[Jussing]

Anyone else getting this?

(3ds max 2017, V-ray ADV 3.50.04)

It's just a clean scene, with sphere and teapot, with a V-ray light. Default settings.

You can get the file here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...y_facets01.max

Thanks,
- Jonas

[vlado]

In this particular case the only solution would be to increase the tessellation either directly on the sphere/teapot primitives or by using the VRayDisplacementMod modifier in "Subdivision" mode with displacement amount set to 0.0

Best regards,
Vlado

[Jussing]

Yes, I also very rarely stumble across this issue in production, because I usually use more hi-poly models, but I'm still puzzled why it would be rendered like this. Does Vray not use the smoothing groups of 3ds Max? Is it considered a bug, or does it work as intended?

Thanks,
- Jonas

[vlado]

It works as intended.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Jussing]

OK, thanks.

Can you clarify? It still seems odd to me... it looks like the smoothing groups are taking into consideration on the illuminated side, and perhaps also in the shadow side, but not where shadow meets light...

- Jonas

[vlado]

It has nothing to do with smoothing groups; since you have an area light, some of the shadow rays are blocked by the actual low-poly geometry; the proportion of these shadow rays changes abruptly from one polygon to the next leading to the artifacts (see the attachment).

Best regards,
Vlado

[Jussing]

Aha, that makes sense.... thanks for the explanation.

- Jonas

[im.thatoneguy]

Brazil had a nice hack that would work around this. I miss it.

[vlado]

Brazil had a nice hack that would work around this. I miss it.

All hacks that I've seen fail in various situations.

Best regards,
Vlado