mmdestiny Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 (edited) Hi all, All my previous meshes were made in 3DS Max 2012. I've just made my first batch in 2015. Everything I've exported from 2015 has come into nifskope with this strange flat glow that is angle-dependent (some angles are flat bright, others are flat dark, shadows are non-existent).I couldn't for the life of me figure out what setting might have caused this, so I found an old mesh that I know exported fine in Max 12 and exported it using 2015. Sure enough, the current export of the old file now had the strange glow as well. I opened the 2012 and 2015 version nifs side by side and compared every single parameter. They are all the same, headers included. Has anyone come across this before? Imgur link below to good and bad nifs comparison so you can see the difference in the appearance. https://imgur.com/a/R5qq0 (My nifskope version has remained unchanged between good and bad exports so it shouldn't matter, but it's 2.0.0 Pre-Alpha 5) ***UPDATE***: I discovered that even though I was not using normal maps , the export was "making up" a normal map for the nif (basically taking my diffuse map file name and adding "_n", looking for a file that doesn't exist). I had just been removing that filename from the maps list in nifskope, but it got me thinking.I tried importing a vanilla nif and re-exporting it. Even this vanilla file got the glow, so I figured it has to be a setting I'm using at export, even though I've always been able to use default settings in the past. "Export Normals" had been checked off by default. When I checked this on and exported my mesh, the glow went away, but strangely the nif was still "making up" a normal map path. Why would 3DS be forcing the nif to look for a normal map when there isn't one, and is there a way to fix this? Edited March 29, 2018 by mmdestiny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehtyeci Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 I believe the plugin exports with tangent data zeroed out. You can confirm this by expanding Vertex Data in the mesh block, then click on any Tangent entry and see if they all point in one direction. To force a refresh of the normals, right click mesh > Mesh > Update Tangent Spaces. This forces normals to be recalculated based on face normals. Might also have to set face normals as well, just to be sure. Edit: Not sure if that function is available on your current version. You should be using the newest version of Nifskope, Dev 7.Edit2: Just checked 3ds max 15 and 18. You can try setting "Update Tangent Space" during export and see if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmdestiny Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 Thanks ehtyeci.I suppose I should have been clearer in the "UPDATE" edit at the end of OP: I've solved the normal glow issue. The plugin for 2012 had Normals and Tangent Spaces checked by default. The 2015 version apparently did not and that's what I was missing, because I was used to being able to just export with all defaults. Strangely enough the Update Tangent Spaces function of NifSkope did not correct the problem, so perhaps it is not functional in my version, as you say. At this point the only question I have remaining is why the export plugin tries to "make up" a normal map path when one isn't assigned.Example: I exported with only a diffuse map "texture_d.dds", but when I get to nifskope for some reason the nif is also looking for "texture_d_n.dds" in the normals slot which doesn't exist and was never assigned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehtyeci Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 My bad, didn't deduce you fixed it from the edit. Niftools plugin makes some assumptions during export. While most settings are exposed in the export window, there are also some in the MaxNifTools.ini file located in plugcfg in your 3ds max install directory. That said, I've never had the plugin write out any materials to my nifs - I usually create material files and assign them manually. Are you perhaps assigning materials in 3ds max? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmdestiny Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 (edited) My 3DS skills are rudimentary (I'm a Cinema4D user by trade, and in [The Year Of Our Lord Two Thousand Eighteen] we STILL don't have a C4D nif plugin :wallbash: ) so all I'm doing is modelling in C4D, exporting to 3DS as a .obj, and mapping the .dds map to diffuse and nothing else. To be completely honest in the past I've had nothing but trouble when trying to use normal maps at all, getting crashes whenever the LOD has to recalculate :sad:. Now they're giving me a trouble and I'm not even using them haha. Edited March 30, 2018 by mmdestiny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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