posted 09-16- 09:44 PM               

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"Don't move, if we scatter, he'll pick us off! Stand Together!"~~Aladar

posted 09-17- 09:27 AM               

Dunno if thats the problem here, but it's an idea.

posted 09-17- 10:54 AM               

First, verify that all of the normals are pointing the right way. Set the 3d menu to show normals. If you find that some are the wrong way, simply select all the verts in the offending polys and chose "flip normals."

Second, you need to verify shared verts. Select a vert that you think should be shared, see how many verts it really is 0 this shows up in ac3d when you select any verts, a number appears showing how many verts are selected. If you have selected what should be one vert, and more are selcted, do this to the vert group: Snap verts together, now they have identical coords.

Last, you will need to optomise and re-smooth. Make sure all the polys of the wing are merged into one object. Now select that object. Now "optomise verts." This will take all the dupe verts from the second step above and "share" them into one vert, now you have less verts, a seamless object, and the ability to shade properly. Now click the smooth shading button, you should see your problems disappear!

If you do all the correctly, and you still have issues, then you have one of these two issues:

1. Bad mesh somehow, non-planer polys, or some other oddity that resulted from the mesh creation process.

2. A vetex normal bug. Try breaking the wing into a few key sub objects, like the top. the bottom, and any other ribs ot strange parts. Do not allow any sharp corners in these sub objects, try to get them sheet-like. Now save this heheh. Now merge all of the objects back into one object, optomise verts and smooth shade. This has fixed any smooth shading issues that I have had in Ac3D, but it can be areal pain in the vert

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-Sv =FC=

WWI in SDOE!

posted 09-17- 11:41 AM               

Last, cut away the inner wing section. Now DO NOT smooth again or you will break the vertex normals.. I think. This should work. This is what I think is happening:

You have the wing as one object. When you smooth it (and it is a good mesh), the vert normals are set to aid in smooth shading. When you cut away part of the object, both new objects will reatain the vertex normals and ultimatly the correct shading. If you smooth shade either object after it is cut away, then the vert normals will be re-calculated and will now be wrong.

This technique works for me, look at the EIII wings - three trianlge objects make up each wing. When I did this with the Morane N I smooth shaded each triangle speratly and the shading was bad. With the EIII I shaded before I cut the triangles away.

Remember, you texture and shade before you cut away. Texture and smooth shade the entire inner/outer wing, flaps and airlerons at one time. Now cut each piece away, smooth shading andf texture mapping stays the way it was when it was on big object, this is what we want in the game, for the wing to be shaded like one object, not seperate peices.