NURBS Modeling Rhino vs 3DSMax

[Guest Patrick_Waugh]

Anyone use NURBS to model? It is a bit of a learning curve and tougher, but seems to have some advantages.Also, a while back someone mentioned to me that if they had to do it over again, they would do their initial modeling of the fuselage in NURBS in Rhino 3D, and then move that to 3DSMAX (perhaps as a poly) as the NURBS tools were better/easier in Rhino.Anyone know/think that is true today with Rhino 4.0 vs. 3DSMax 8?While a lot is what you know and preference, it seems there may be truth to this due to Rhino being a NURBS tool.Patrick

[Guest Patrick_Waugh]

Any hard core 3DSMax modelers might want to check out Power NURBS. About $1000 US, but looks awesome!Watch the videos of the guy modeling the car and you'll see what I mean.Patrick

[Guest fbnweoghnwd]

I'd be a bit reluctant to use NURBS for a flight sim model. NURBS is good for cinematic use, where an object might be blown up to the size of a wall, and everything is pre-rendered. But I've never seen good results when a NURBS model is converted to polys. When the end product is going to be a polygonal model, I'd rather work with polys right from the start.-Mick

[Guest Patrick_Waugh]

Mick,>I'd be a bit reluctant to use NURBS for a flight sim model.>NURBS is good for cinematic use, where an object might be>blown up to the size of a wall, and everything is>pre-rendered.Actually, you already use a sub-set of NURBS when/if you use spines. They are just a type of NURBS curve with less capabilities. NURBS curves have the advantage of eliminating tangency problems introduced by plain spines, which result in a "discontinuity" at the knot. With NURBS, you can maintain C2 or even C3 continuity (meaning the 2nd and 3rd derivitives are not zero).With Power NURBS, you can completely control the accuracy of the mesh approximation.Even better, you can create one model, and with the push of a single key, put it in "high-res" mode, to then use the model to create bump maps etc. for the final lower-res model, and you can then go back to the level of tesselation you wish to use to convert to mesh!>But I've never seen good results when a NURBS>model is converted to polys. When the end product is going to>be a polygonal model, I'd rather work with polys right from>the start.Well, I doubt you have done much NURBS modeling, so that would not surprise me. Also, if you are limiting yourself to the tool set within 3DS, then you would be hard pressed to get good results without knowing a lot of secrets to massaging them.I'm not sure about Rhino as I've never used it.Take a look at this video: hereThis thing is on my wish list.Patrick