Hi Craig,
Do I get your question correctly? You want to use Hair to produce Polygons.
Hair is normally a process to produce an effect that is not comparable with typical textures. Hence the problems why a polygon based result is expected.
In the moment the Hair Object is no longer producing pure Hair, then the produced polygons can’t take the information that the “Native Hair” would use.
Sounds cryptic (?), perhaps, and I don’t go further, because I would like to share an idea about:
If you like to get an deep understanding in the difference of the results, do the following. Set up a sphere and add a Hair Object, so you get something like a fluff ball.
Set up a multi-pass rendering for a single image. Add All, from the Multi-Pass button in the Render-settings.
Render that image, and set the Picture viewer to Layer>Single image. Check out where Hair appears.
Then use another type of Hair> Circle, render again, compare the results per pass! (You have to set both sides individually, each time.)
I hope that will help to get an idea how different Hair and Polygons work.
To create an easier comparison, set the first render in teh Picture Viewer to A and the second one to B, to use the comparison, see image below.
Have a good one
Sassi
