i never saw the first one, but man, the beginning of that teaser, with the building, all i thought was "9" and "oh crap, not again"... horrible movie. lol
in customise>viewports>choosedriver, select direct X 8.1 not 9. this is also in the max help file. I used to have problems with this... fucking directX eh?
Thank you so much for the response. I learned what backface masking is and it will be really useful for me going forward. I'm also in the process of following your edits. I have to go to my 9-5 this week, but hopefully I can go back to it in the weekend.