Smoothshade, ARRRRGH (PIC HEAVY!)

[alchemist]

Hello. I've been working on a new model for the Osiris for the past month or so, and I've hit a bit of a snag.

Now, in 3ds max 5, the model looks like this:




However, when exported into mod format and viewed via the mod viewer, I had bricks when I saw this:



I decided to try different shades, and in flat shade, it looks like this:



When test-flown in SFC3, I thanked the lord that the mesh looked like this again:






It is also better in SFC2, if only slightly.

Can someone help me with this problem? I've been putting some serious hours into this model, as it's my first moderately complex
one. I'm new to this, and cannot seem to correct this problem. Everytime I drag the model back to 3DS and smooth so it looks pristine again, it ends up the same as before.

[Wicked Zombie]

You'll have to set the smoothing groups for the ship - not a quick fix but if you're familiar with the model it's just time-consuming.

Basically what you need to do is "Convert to Editable Mesh", and select it section by section, and hit "detach" each time so that any sides that have fudged smoothing get leveled off. As it is now (and basically with most ships), it's smoothing the entire ship - or large portions of it - as one whole. What setting the smoothing groups does is breaks it up so the smoothing is distributed across more separate objects. So, for example, if you wanted the edges of the saucer to be fixed, you would select the rim of the saucer, detach it, and then keep going from there. The parts will still be smoothed, but it will be constrained to the boundaries of each specific section.

Another tip is that you should detach anything on the ends - flat surfaces, the hull scoop, the top of the bridge, essentially anything that isn't rounded in form or starts to become flat.

Also, once you've detached them all from a given part, you can then reattach them to the original segment so you don't end up with 500 pieces to deal with - the smoothing will not be affected.

If you feel you have detached something you didn't want to and it's too late to undo, you can reattach it and weld the points back together along the break-line.

SFC3, however, will not accept the smoothing groups and you will end up with the same mess you started with in-game but it does it to everyone's models so, just one more reason why that game is sub-par.

It will take some fiddling and trial-and error but you'll get the feel for it. Make backups of every major change and after each detach, refresh the model in Modviewer to see how it will look.

If you're still blind-sided, just ask more questions - I'm sure I can liven up the wordage for those who are not dead...