Subdivision problem?

[Nardes]

Have you tried using higher smoothing group value?

[jabbermacy]

You have a five sided poly clearly visible in your pics and you are seeing the internal tesselation required for the render because said poly is non-planar. You can 'show all edges' to confirm this fact. You need to re-examine your modelling technique to eliminate all non-quads.

[Reaver2k]

Thanks jabbermacy.

Why does it still have this tessellation problem on my quad polys aswell though? Like some shown.
What you were saying is dont let any 5 sided polys get into the model or 3? Just 4? If you could figure out why im still getting tesselation on 4 sided polys aswell that would be great.
Cheers for all your help guys, Alan

Edit: I already had view all edges on in the viewport view i think? Doesn't show any tessellation. Get back to me ASAP! Thank you!

[Reaver2k]

I'm really sorry to be such a nuisance but I really can't carry on modelling with this problem persisting, especially if my technique is wrong as jabber has possibly thought (Still not understanding why my 4 verts polys are having this problem though, and with all edged faces showing this tessellation isnt showing)

Please any experienced users it would be a great help if you could post your ideas here as soon as possible.
Cheers for the help in advance, Alan

[3DMadness]

If you're not using meshsmoth or turbo smooth, all you have to do is go to polygon sub object (shortcut: 4), select all (ctl+A) and in the smooth groups press "auto smooth" and I guess it'll be ok. The problem seems to be lack of any smooth groups in your mesh. ;)

[RampanT]

Yup, there's not a problem with your modelling technique, (although it is best to avoid 5 sided polygons) you just need to apply smoothing groups. This has nothing to do with whether you have used 4 or 5 sided polygons, because you will see the internal edge of a 4 sided polygon also. (4 sided polygons can just as easily be non-planer) Working in edit poly mode, Max flat shades all of the ploygons, which is why you don't see it in the viewport. As 3Dmadness says, either use autosmooth, or apply the proper smoothing groups that you desire.

[Reaver2k]

Ok that seems to work, making gradients in my shading but I guess thats no biggie.

Quick question, is there anyway to automatically give each poly its own smoothing group, being a robot I need the hard edges, smoothing two polys together I dont think will give the impressision I want it to, there seems to only be 32 smoothing groups so is this possible? Or is there a work around which gives the same effect (hard edges all over).

Cheers for all your help guys your being amazing :)

[-Vormav-]

You can actually use the 'smooth' modifier to separate all of your polys into different smoothing groups. I might be wrong on this (don't have access to max atm), but I believe that that's what the modifier does by default, if used before any mesh smoothing.
And if you're working in all-quads, 32 smoothing groups is more than enough; when polys are not directly adjacent to each other, they are not considered to be in the same smoothing group.
So, for example, say you have 3 different quads connected in line, 1|2|3 ('1' shares no direct connection to '3'). Putting quads 1 and 3 in smoothing group 1, while also putting quad 2 into smoothing group 2, would give the same result as putting each of the quads into their own smoothing groups, if that makes any sense.

[RampanT]

Even for a robot character, it would seem strange to have all of the polygons smoothed seperately I think - unless it is very low poly. However, this can be done. As Vormav says, apply a 'smooth' modifier, tick 'auto-smooth', and reduce the threshhold to 0. This should get the desired affect.

[Reaver2k]

Thanks thats perfect you two. Yeah rampant I understand what you mean it's just I'm having trouble makeing it sort of "Plated" I also need someway to seperate the panels of the robot. Hard to describe but here is what I have so far, the "head" has many panels, but they don't look like panels, they need seperating.

Any ideas on how to do this would be great, but I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question?
Cheers, you've been a great help. Alan

[-Vormav-]

Thanks thats perfect you two. Yeah rampant I understand what you mean it's just I'm having trouble makeing it sort of "Plated" I also need someway to seperate the panels of the robot. Hard to describe but here is what I have so far, the "head" has many panels, but they don't look like panels, they need seperating.

Any ideas on how to do this would be great, but I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question?
Cheers, you've been a great help. Alan
If you're going for a separate panel kind of look, you should just try modeling the pieces of the robot separately. Maybe form the basic shape of the robot as a single poly object, then separate polys into different sections, export those as separate poly objects, and then refine them separately. It can be difficult, but it's a lot easier than getting that look out of a single sub-d object.
Or you could always experiment with creasing. I hate creasing, since it tends to get screwed up as you add to or remove from the geometry, but it can definitely give you your hard, panel-like edges.

[Reaver2k]

I'm not quite sure I understood your first suggestion, start with 1 poly object for the head (like I already have), Then what? Could you go into a little more detail, if you have the time of course.

Any other suggestions also welcome everyone, Thanks again everyone!
Alan

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