CGTalk - questions about "flip normals"

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aor

01-12-2003, 07:02 AM

yeah, im a noob.. soo.. heres the q - when i'm working w/ the surface mod, sometiemst eh surface only shows up on one side.. and i can fix this by doing the "flip normals" thing..

so my questions are:

1) why? why does it sometimes go to one side or the other?

2) how can i get it all on one side?

3) any reason that its bad to have "flip normals" checked on?

thanks in advance!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Cryptkeeper

01-12-2003, 02:36 PM

one of my very few posts :P

to answer (and dont take my word 100%) but the way a face is created determins which way the normal faces. example, if you create the face clockwise the normal points away from you and towards you if the face is created counter-clockwise (or vice-versa)

2)there is a command called something like "unify all normals" (or something like that, brain not working) I think its in the quads.

3) no.

aor

01-12-2003, 07:40 PM

nice! thanks! ima go look for the "unify" thingymabobber.. thanks again!

Iain McFadzen

01-12-2003, 07:53 PM

The answer is that all sufaces in 3DSMax are one-sided (though you can force the renderer to see both sides), and when using the Surface mod Max has to "guess" which way you wanted the surface to face. If the cage has two unconnected areas of surface it is possible for it to get them muddled up, but this DOES NOT happen if your cage is valid, so the best thing to do when this occurs is to just keep on connecting up verts and drawing splines, and it will fix itself eventually.

If you have your whole surface built and you are still having problems that can't be solved with the "flip normals" box then you have an error in your cage somewhere and you will need to fix it.

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