Rashad Carter - 26 June 2012 09:43 AM
These images are fantastic, Kine Magik!
There are differing schools of thought on boolean modeling as you already well know. The benefits of boolean modeling are obvious, but the drawbacks are less widely understood.
It has been my experience that boolean models are unstable, and the more complex the more unstable. As you mentioned, primitives dont use real geometry, at least not at first. When boolean operations occur however, conversion begins to take place. In scenes with lots of nested boolean operations the more nesting the greater likelihood the file will go corrupt.
My suggestion for those who love boolean modeling is to avoid nested operations that are unnecessary. It is better to use a few helper meshes, like the “Additional Primitives” included with Bryce 7 Pro. Clearly these are not truly primitives, but no matter because they are practical and will avoid nested operations to create shapes people often need but would otherwise have to build themselves. I tend to think of boolean operations are precious, only but so many will be allowed so I use them only when I need them.
Lastly, polygon count is a serious consideration even when working with primitives. Even the standard cube requires a decent amount of memory.
Another drawback of nested booleans is the Materials information trapped within those nests. There are often loose ends with materials that creep up on us later. if you boolean a positive and a negative item and select the transfer material option, then use that resulting object to build yet further more complex elements, at some point the software can get confused on the status of all those hidden cut up primitives with no real geometry in the first place.
On LAA, your system spec sound as if they should benefit greatly from Large Address Awareness. You will get roughly 3.4gb out of Bryce now.
Yes, Bryce 7 zip compresses files when they are saved. This is wise because otherwise a scene that used 3.2gb of ram would also require 3.2gb on disc, eating up memory on users systems. Saving is slower as you observed, but in the end your hard drive will thank you.
Hello Rashad
Thank you for your warm welcome.
I have had a look at some of your work (yes actually done some research) It is absolutely stunning! I like it very much and will have a look at some more later.
I have NOT had problems with Constructive Solid Geometry based on Boolean Set Operations. I have found them stable more so than many other features of Bryce.
Perhaps one reason is that i do what you have advised: “My suggestion for those who love boolean modeling is to avoid nested operations that are unnecessary.” That IS good advice!
The other thing is correct assignment of the solids. Say you want to build a cutter to engrave another object or to shape another object. First all the parts of the cutter must be set to positive. Then they are grouped. Then the group becomes a new object which must be set to negative. Then the object to be cut must have all of its parts set to positive. Then it must be grouped. Then the group must be set to positive. Then the 2 parts must correctly aligned and scaled . Then they are grouped and voila you have a nice transformation and it is stable. If you need two cutters to work together they must be made into one.
Perhaps when i have some time i will dream up some super complex “booleans” and try them out and demonstrate how it is done. It is similar to reducing a complex equation into the simplest terms. Bryce can’t do this so the artist has to figure it out.
Any way i have started a new thread on Bryce Origami
I want to be done with this because i want to look at your lovely work
Kind regards
Peter
