Hello fellow MoI users.

I am having this very annoying problem with MoI models imported to 3DS Max.
Problem is that vertex normals (I guess) gets messed up immediately after I try to modify the geometry, like adding additional cut or whatever. How can I prevent this from happening or what would be the fix? Since I made some tests and in C4D it works just fine and, nothing gets broken.
Attached image will help you to understand better what I'm talking about.
Thank You very much.

Hi mantaskava, does it behave differently in Max if you use "Output: Quads & Triangles" when exporting out from MoI instead of n-gons?

- Michael

Just tested it out and it behaves exactly the same. And even if it would fix the shading problem, it creates another one- messy topology which is nearly impossible to alter hassle free.
I really want this workflow to work (Create model in MoI > Export to Max > Modify geo in Max if needed). But I just can't get it to work without totally destroying shading of an object.
As it stands now, everytime I want to modify the original geo I pretty much have to re-create the model in MoI and re-export it and then re-apply all the materials/re-name all the objects/re-set mat id's etc. which is not time efficient at all.

Hi mantaskava, as best I can tell from your description it sounds like it's a bug in 3DS Max when working with meshes that have vertex normals on them.

I'm not in control of 3DS Max so I'm not sure what I would be able to do to improve that for you. You would probably need to contact Autodesk about this problem.

- Michael

Yeah I bet this is Max's problem too, I just thought that I shouldn't be first one to discover this problem and maybe someone here already found the solution. Since there should be plenty of people exporting their stuff to 3DS Max for rendering etc.
Hopefully someone still has some more insight into it and meanwhile I'll try contacting Autodesk too.
Thanks once again.

For what it is worth, as I've never used 3DS Max: This link speaks of 3 ways to fix the normals in 3DS Max,
with either "reset normals", or "Break", or "Unify" command in 3DS Max:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/model-gets-strange-black-grey-quot-shaded-quot-polys-and-it-just/td-p/4420379

-Brian

(Google search was "3dsmax import normals problem)

C4D is giving suspectly good result, because usually any other package will give you weird shading if you mess with the geometry at a vertex/poly level.
That's said 3Dsmax shading mess seems quite extreme here, like if vertex normal from the new added geo if just missing, or set at (0,0,0).

Yeah that does look like the vertex normals are ending up as 0,0,0 . But also having the entire polygon pitch black probably means the entire polygon's vertex normals are ending up as 0,0,0 - if it was only some vertices you'd probably see something more like black streaks emanating from the 0,0,0 ones.

- Michael