3ds Max dark shading 'error'

danshewan

Hey guys,

So I'm making a simple model in Max, and I'm also using headus' UVLayout demo to unwrap the various components of the model. After I import the .obj file saved from UVLayout and introduce it into my Max scene, the model has some strange, dark shading rather than the usual flat color.





I did a search, but couldn't find anything regarding this. I initially thought it was a vertex weld issue, but they seem fine. Adding a Normal modifier to the stack merely inverts the normals (as you'd expect) so that the object's surface turns completely black, so the normals appear fine, too.

Any ideas? I'm presuming it's something quite simple - maybe my .obj import options?




Thanks in advance.

Neox

are there faces in between? looks like one smoothinggroup on the whole object

danshewan

Neox wrote: »

are there faces in between? looks like one smoothinggroup on the whole object

Thanks, Neox - it was a smoothing group problem. Cleared the groups from all objects, shading returned to normal.

Thanks again.

dejawolf

clearing isn't the best solution. you might bump into that problem again when you export, since some exporters take smoothing group off = smoothing groups on, so the whole model gets 1 smoothing group.

MoP

As dejawolf said, just clearing the SGs hasn't fixed the underlying problem, which Neox seems to have correctly described.
Basically you have some extra faces in between those pieces causing the dodgy smoothing. If you don't delete those faces, the problems could come back, or you could run into other issues.

danshewan

Well, unless it's a problem with the geometry of each individual object, I didn't think it could be a problem with additional faces, since I left small gaps between each primitive object. They're just boxes, with small chamfers applied to all edges:





I thought it was a problem with my import / export settings: