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DTS shades and vertex normals (exporting from 3DS MAX)

by Frantisek Chmelar · in Technical Issues · 04/13/2007 (12:49 pm) · 2 replies

Hello,

A beginner's question: I simply cannot create DTS shape with sharp edges.

No matter what I do, wrong shades are all over the shape. Imagine a box mesh with all faces set to one smoothing group and shades trying to make it look like a sphere. That's what I get.

I create box in 3DS Max. Then I explode it into elements. This breaks the box into 6 separate elements and splits every vertex into three new vertexes. I learned that Torque works with vertex normals, but the explode function changes even the vertex normals the way I need (at least the normals are displayed correctly in Max).

Then I export the box and... the ShowTool shows me the "spheric" looking wrong shaded box again.

Do I have to set something in *.cfg or do something else? I tried the latest DTS exporter version I found. Same problem.

#1
04/13/2007 (12:58 pm)
Hi Frantisek

Afaik Torque treats no smoothing groups as one smoothing group. To get the desired effect create diffrent smoothing groups where you want the seams. Test it by making a simple box and giving each face a diffrent smoothing group and export.
#2
04/14/2007 (6:30 am)
AHA! It solved my problem. Thanks a lot for a quick response.

I was used to engines, which derive smoothing strictly from the geometry (disconected parts = edge, connected parts = smooth shadow). I see torque shows smooth shadow even over disconecned parts, if there is the same smoothing group (and the edge vertices overlap).