I''m now certain (almost certain anyway) that the problem is with MAX exporting the data to the .ase files. It is butchering some of the normals/geometry I think. I''ll take a look at the algorithms mentioned in that last post. I have it ''working'' now, click on my sig if you''re interested. I''m about sick of MAX''s bs right about now. Is it gonna switch the indices on the normals this time or not? No one knows for sure...

-BacksideSnap-

I just ran by this article and remember your post
I think it''s exactly what you''re looking for, check it out if you haven''t already

CLICK!



ByteMe95::~ByteMe95()

That''s a really good article byteme. I wish I had seen it a few days ago... I need to go through and manually calulate out the normals saying as MAX butchered them in the export. For $4000 that program sure is a POS. More crashhappy then me driving with a single malt in my lap.

-BacksideSnap-

Backside, I dont know what it is but for some reason I keep running into pages discussing exactly the problems you face. First triangle/ray intersection and now the y/z flipping of vertices by 3dsMAX

Apparently it isn''t a "problem", it''s known to do it.

Check out this article, found it right here on good ol'' Gamedev.

YIPPEE!

- Rob



ByteMe95::~ByteMe95()

Haha... Maybe I should quit my whining and look around the web a bit. I haven''t checked out that article yet, but my problem with MAX is that it''s inconsistent. Sometimes it switches shit, sometimes it doesn''t... Not that I can cry too much about it, I got it from a friend. Had I actually paid for it myself I would have a reason to moan. I''m eventually going to write my own level builder anyway. I''ll check it out... Hopefully I can get it all working. I want to put a better level in my demo before I add in terrain as well. The fact that this isn''t working right is really holding me back a lot. That''s why I''m being such a bitch about it. Thanks once again.

-BacksideSnap-

Hey, I know that frustrating feeling. I dont think you''re a true game programmer unless you know that feeling of frustration and just wanting to give up. But you never do cause you know there is ALWAYS an answer out there waiting for you to find it, and when you do and you get your shit workin, it''s worth all that annoying bullshit you had to put up with.

I took a look at your site backside, it looks pretty nice, how long have you been doing 3d?



ByteMe95::~ByteMe95()

I''ve been doing 3D and graphics for a little over a year... I''ve been programming in oGL for about 9-10 months. I switched gears about a year and a half ago and went into programming (where I belong) after getting my BS in Mechanical Engineering. Thank god I did, I''m making a hell of a lot more money, and having a hell of a lot more fun doing so. I guess I really started programming in 6th grade in BASIC on my Apple IIe... Then Pascal... then Fortran... Finally c++ (and web programming too, but that doesn''t count Anyway, I''m sure that''s much more information than you wanted to know.
As far as the frustration goes - I''ve been about ready to send my computer out the window a couple times... It feels unusually nice running that knight in my demo into the walls though. I''m sure my girlfriend is wondering wtf is wrong with me and why she let a freak move in with her.
Back to the topic, I think I have a solution for the problem. The orientation on the faces is still correct when I switch the y and z indices, so I''ll just generate face normals off of that instead of reading them in from file. Who gives a damn about the vertex normals, if part of the ambient lighting screws up who cares. Not me, and certainly not at this point.

-BacksideSnap-

Well, if anyone cares it was MAX''s fault, mainly, along with a couple of stupid errors on my part (an if else in place of an if, actually). For some reason when I rotated the geometry in it, it didn''t rotate the normals. I had to calculate them myself, but that wasn''t a big deal. It''s working about 99% right now, with a couple of little fixes that need to be taken care of. Fuck you 3DS MAX. If anyone out there is using .ase files, be careful. It may not export the data correctly.

-BacksideSnap-

They can shorten my name to backside if they want to get backhanded Actually, backside is fine. All it is referring to is taking a wave left if you''re normal footed (and right if you''re goofy-footed). Just a surfing (real surfing, not the internet) term. Of course, only people with a coast would know that.
How difficult is MAXscript? I may have to try it out. Either that or build my own mesh editor, which I''m going to eventually get around to doing anyway. I''ll look at what''s on your site. It''s similar to what I want to build.

-BacksideSnap-