Incorrect Shading in viewport on my [Ligth Switch] model [3Ds Max]

EliasWick

Hello wonderful people! I have a question regarding incorrect shading on my model. [A light Switch]

I've had this trouble multiple times and have finally come to realize that I need to ask for help! I assume that there is a very simple solution or some rule in the software that I have not been following.

Here is some information on what I did to try and fix the issue. Note: "The model has to be in one smoothing group."
* I looked at all the angles to make sure the surface is completely straight.
* I tried connecting all the verts, which gave me a worse result.
* I also tried various smaller stuff but nothing seemed to fix the issue or correct the shading.

Here are some images. Keep in mind that the shading is very subtle in one of the images.











If you have any idea of how I can fix this or remake it in order to make it look properly then please tell me! All help is appreciate. I would also apologize if this thread is not up to the standard of what it should be. I am very new to this forum.

Thanks for reading!
//Elias Wick

Eric Chadwick

I moved your thread out of General Discussion and into the appropriate subforum.

How do you intend to use this model once you have completed it? That has a direct bearing on which method you use to fix it.

Why does it need to be 1 smoothing group?

Obscura

This should fix it. Or an easier method can be to add some supportloops, but depending on how and where you want to use the model, maybe its not the best option cause then you get a lot of extra geo.

EliasWick

Thank you both! The link that was provided was very helpful!

The model has to be on one smooth group since it is going to be imported to the Source Engine. If I have multiple smoothing groups, the lighting will be displayed incorrectly. Almost as if the two objects were hit by 2 different lights.

Obscura

To make it clear, you can use smoothing groups on non rigged meshes:
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Smoothing_groups

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Hammer_Smoothing_Groups_Dialog

An another page there mentioning that rigged assets will have 1 smoothing group though, but I'm not a source engine user so I can't tell you surely how it works there. But when I remember back to games with source, I clearly see many hard edges.