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This code generates a nice sphere with distorted mesh lines, in the sense that they are not smooth enough. One can clearly see many disjoint lines trying to imitate a curve. I would like a smoothened curve instead for this particular mesh setup.

ParametricPlot3D[{Cos[\[Phi]] Sin[\[Theta]], Sin[\[Phi]] Sin[\[Theta]], Cos[\[Theta]]}, {\[Phi], 0, 2 \[Pi]}, {\[Theta], 0, \[Pi]}, Mesh -> 6, BoundaryStyle -> Black, PlotRange -> ConstantArray[{-1.1, 1.1}, 3], PlotStyle -> {Opacity[0.2]}, ImageSize -> Large]

Any hint is appreciated.

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  • $\begingroup$ Increase the value of Mesh. $\endgroup$
    – Henrik Schumacher
    Mar 31, 2020 at 9:53
  • $\begingroup$ @HenrikSchumacher, that would increase the number of curves, instead of the quality of each curve. I am sorry if that was not clear from the question. $\endgroup$
    – exp ikx
    Mar 31, 2020 at 9:55
  • $\begingroup$ Well, it does both. I am still figuring out how to do one one thing of the two... $\endgroup$
    – Henrik Schumacher
    Mar 31, 2020 at 9:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Nasser, I really want only these many lines otherwise when I add more details to my plot it will look clumsy. Is there any way to increase the quality? $\endgroup$
    – exp ikx
    Mar 31, 2020 at 9:56
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    $\begingroup$ Okay, you can leave Mesh - > 6 and add something like PlotPoints -> 50. $\endgroup$
    – Henrik Schumacher
    Mar 31, 2020 at 9:57

1 Answer 1

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As Henrik Schumacher pointed out, I had to increase the number of PlotPoints. However, including more number of points did not necessarily change the quality a lot after a value; sort of hit a saturation point.

In case of sphere I really could not see a difference between 25 and 50 points, but probably it is too fine to notice without magnifying many times.

GraphicsGrid[
 ArrayReshape[
  {Table[
    ParametricPlot3D[{Cos[\[Phi]] Sin[\[Theta]], Sin[\[Phi]] Sin[\[Theta]], Cos[\[Theta]]}, 
     {\[Phi], 0, 2 \[Pi]}, {\[Theta], 0, \[Pi]}, RotationAction -> "Clip", 
     Mesh -> 6, BoundaryStyle -> Black, PlotRange -> ConstantArray[{-1.1, 1.1}, 3], 
     PlotStyle -> Opacity[0.2], Boxed -> False, Axes -> False, PlotPoints -> i, 
     PlotLabel -> StringJoin["PlotPoints: ", ToString[i]]], 
  {i, {Automatic, 10, 25, 50}}]},
 {2, 2}], 
ImageSize -> Full, Frame -> All]

enter image description here

After reading through Make A Smoother Or Rougher Plot: How Tos helped me realise, I could increase MaxRecursion also. But if PlotPoints is too low it does not yield any better results.

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