Max6 vertex normals exportable?

[sforsyth]

Hi Eric,

I'm currently looking into something along those lines now. Version 6 was supposed to have fixed the problem with edited normals being lost when the mesh is collapsed. I just tried it right this minute and it doesn't seem to work.
Having said that, I also tried some other things, which the help file claims works, but doesn't for me.

"A game artist is working on an object that will explode in the game. To do this, the game engine requires the object to be split into multiple objects: the broken pieces that will result from the explosion. When the object is broken apart in 3ds max (using Slice), the normals are pointing in different directions; this makes it easy to see the seams between the broken pieces. To fix this, the artist selects all the pieces of the breaking object and applies the Edit Normal modifier to all of them at once. She then selects the normals across the seam and unifies them so they are pointing in the same direction. The artist then exports to the game engine. "

I do this in Max 6.0 and Unify does nothing for me. No point even talking about collapsing it and the problems introduced there, as it won't even unify over seperate meshes in the first place.
I've checked out the discreet web board and there's nothing really on it there either (besides some claims that it works, but not by people who have actually tested it, it would appear).

[EricChadwick]

Yeah, someone else mentioned in another thread that they tried using max6 to massage normals across interchangeable parts, but couldn't find a way to copy the normal from one vert to another.

I've seen that game devs create their own intermediary art tools for massaging normals.

[sforsyth]

Well, you can acutally get the normals across, but it's a bit involved, so it's easier to use a script. There's one written by a guy called Maurizio B.G, you'll find it on scriptspot.com, it's called Normal Thief 1.0 and it's for Max 6. It'll take the normals from a reference object, and apply them vertex by vertex to other objects.
Other than that, you can apply an Edit Normal modifier, select a vertex, hit Cop, apply the same modifier to another object, select a vertex, and hit Paste. Voila, normal pasted across. Problem with this is, it'll only do one normal at a time. What Maurizio's script effectively does is batch this for you.

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