Pillars are curvy-looking in 3D

[alexliz24]

I have this reinforced concrete frame of a building in Athens, and it's got many pillars, beams, slabs.

Problem is that in 3D (although, thankfully, not in rendering) some of the pillars, although rectangular in plan, appear to have gradients, as if they were curved. It seems to be related to something, like, do walls join up to the core of the pillar-or-not, but I'm not sure what.

And therefore I can't fix it consistently. Any tips, anyone?

Many thanks.

[Anonymous]

Can we have a screen shot? I'm not sure I can visualise what is happening.

Thanks.

[alexliz24]

Hi Peter,

Looking at this screenshot, you can see that some pillars have their edges and sides clearly defined/shaded, whereas some others have their sides sort of in a gradient, as if they are really curved surfaces.

[Anonymous]

Weird!?

I've not seen that before. Does it go away if you tweak the sun angle in the sun settings slightly? The OpenGL window only shows a very crude approximation of light levels anyway, perhaps that particular angle of the sun has confused it?

[alexliz24]

I've had this bug (is it?) for around 2-3 years, maybe more. Can't remember with what version it started.

No, tweaking the sun/lights has no effect. From what I gather, it's something to do with 'surface smoothing', not lights.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried changing the OpenGL options under the 3d Window settings? Try ticking or unticking 'Smooth Surfaces'. Or was that what you tried?

Are there any settings perhaps in the actual graphics card drivers that might effect OpenGL display. I can't think of any other solutions I'm afraid.