Hi jason,

> (except for the fact that I get a very large
> number of flipped polys initially).

This could mean that you've still got pieces that have not been joined to each other.

What happens if you run the "select naked edges" script that was posted previously in this thread (here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3793.2), do any of the edges highlight? If so then that means those edges are not joined edges between 2 pieces.

Or another way this can happen is if your object is not a completely closed solid - when an object does not define a completely closed sealed volume, it can possibly have polys oriented in either direction, it's only for closed solids that polygons will automatically be oriented to the outside of the object. You can use the Flip command in MoI in cases like this to reverse the positive normal direction for an object that is not a closed solid. But also it can be easiest if you just turn on double-sided rendering so that it doesn't make any difference.


> There's all kinds of odd tearing and gapping, but only upon render.
>
> Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this?

It's a bit hard to see the artifacts clearly, could you zoom in one one area there to show them a bit better? Are they actually holes, or is it a problem with shading?

Shading problems could be from problems with vertex normals or sometimes from self-shadowing artifacts. Do they go away if you turn off shadow rendering?

Could you possibly post (or e-mail to me at moi@moi3d.com) a small part of the model where you've got those artifacts happening so I can examine the geometry?

- Michael