Number of vertices around the circumference?

[Paul Norfolk]

Haven't got 'proper' use of SL at the moment, so can't test this..... but what is the minimum number of vertices that you can have on the circumference of a cylinder before it starts to look blocky (and I mean with smooth normals)?

I presume that 10 would be sufficient, but I know how funny SL can be with rendering things, so wouldn't surprise me if I'm wrong.

Anyone tested this? or know the answer? Thanks in advance :)

[Kaluura Boa]

There is no absolute number. It all depends on the diameter of the cylinder. For a very thin cylinder, 4, 5 vertices can do the trick. then you increase the number of vertices with the diameter, keeping in mind that prim cylinders use 32 vertices.  You should never go beyond this number unless it is a huge cylinder. Any way, the uploader will stop you with a Land Impact blinking in red and blue. :smileywink:

Very important: Just do not forget to set your faces to smooth or you can add as many vertices as you want, it will still stay blocky. (In Blender: W key then "Shade Smooth" or "Set Smooth" in Blender 2.49.)

[Drongle McMahon]

That is very subjective, and it depends on how close you want (people) to look. Even more important is whether you ever see the circimference as an outline. So for pipes where you never see the ends, six can be enough even at high LOD, with smooth shading, but if you see where they intersect with a flat surface, or if you see the end against the sky, then you need more. I generally aim at 24 for something like a window where you are going to see it occupy a relatively large screen area. That makes it easy to use 12 and 6 at lower LODs. That is definately a compromise. Thirty two is safer, and some use even more. You can somrtimes save a lot of triangles (and therefore land impact) by subdividing just the part near the visible outline while keeping the continuous parts at lower triangle density.

[Paul Norfolk]

Thanks to the both of you for your comments, really helpful and lots to sit and think about :-)

[Interference Lowenhart]

Do it by eye, basically. Zoom out the 3D view in Blender so the cylinder is roughly the size you think you'll see it at the most and adjust the number of verts until it looks right. Do bear in mind that smooth shading hides a LOT, so you'll be surprised how, in certain circumstances, you can get away with very, very low vert counts. I made my partner a necklace a while back. The number of verts that make up the extruded shape for the cord on it? 3.

[Soca McConnell]

Hello I'm having some questions about cylinders in SL and just readed you say cylinders have 32 vertices,it confuses me because I did a cylinder on blender with 32 vertices and when put next to the original cylinder prim from SL they doesnt match so I counted the faces of the prim cylinder(the SL one)and it have 24 ,is that correct? is it my viewer? I'm watching it closer as I can,and the only way to make it match is by making a new cylinder in blender ,this time with 24 vertices,then they are exactly the same even when i didn't use the smooth tool.why if I made a 32 vertices cylinder doesn't match with the secondlife one exactly? can someone light this doubt please?

[Drongle McMahon]

SL cylinders have 24 segments at high LOD, not 32. I guess that was mixing it up with sculpty cylinders with square maps, which have 32 segments. You can see the structure of prims most clearly if you view in wireframe mode (Develop->Rendering->Wireframe). You can turn off sky, surface patch and water (Advanced->Render Types) if you need to to make it easier to see the object wireframes.

[Soca McConnell]

thank you for your good and fast answer!