Normals...., arrghhhhhhhhhh

BigB2005

Hi,
I have one problem, that i have been unable to fix.
The problem is, whatever is modelled in Max looks smooth and nicely, but when exported to .3ds , everything looks messy.
Take a look here please :

http://www.fysoftware.com/pb/problem.jpg

That mesh has a problem, but when the smooth tool is applied, he gets fixed :

http://www.fysoftware.com/pb/fix.jpg

But when the model is saved to .3ds, either in milkshape or Max, when we open it, it's all messed up again.
I can't believe this is a bug in the .3ds file format, this format has been around for ages now, so, it has to be something that we do wrong.

Can anyone help ?
thanks

FatAssasin

It actually is a problem with the .3ds format. Since it is such an old format it doesn't support smoothing properly. You're better off using the .obj format if you can.

BigB2005

And can't models be made in a way that this doens't happen ?

FatAssasin

Not that I know of. It's a technical limitation of the .3ds format. If you want a technical explanation open up the MaxScript reference and look up "Understanding Texture Coordinates".

Eric Chadwick

.3ds only supports a single UV coord per vertex, so where ever there's a UV seam, the vertices will be split.

If you still want to use .3ds, you can just re-weld the vertices in 3ds max. Easy... Sub-Object = Vertex, Select All, Weld.