I'm assuming you're still talking about max.....
Originally posted by xenthorious
Hey, I have a question. How do I take one object, and merge it with another?
Right click on it, select 'attach', select the next object. you may need to delete faces / weld vertices, etc as well; it's not a boolean add.
(i.e. if you have 2 'halves' and attach them, you still need to collapse the vertices along the middle 'spline', i.e. where the models join)
Originally posted by xenthorious
Also, I have a problem with lighting...
After I recreate a polygon on an object, the lighting for that polygon is different from the rest of the polygons on the object.
Firstly, check the vertexes of that polygon are collapsed with the model (i.e. it shares vertexes with the surrounding faces). Usual way is to select each corner, and collapse it if >1 vertice is selected (NB: make sure to check that you're not selecting other vertices below the face, etc; you're looking for pairs of vertices in mode or less the exact same position. Somtimes with creating faces, you miss clicking on an existing vertice and get a new one created instead)
Secondly; and this is more likely; click on element, select the entire object, go down to the autosmooth button (I forget the ecxact name, IIRc it has 45 by default and is above the bunch of numerical buttons for the groups) and click it.
What this does, is apply smoothing settings to the selected faces; in this case it should be the entire object. Smoothing settings determine how each poly is lit with regards to the next poly...i.e. how they shade into each other. New polygons are usually set at 0 smoothing - faceted - so the edges are pronounced.
45 is a decent setting for most models, you can also create smoothgroups with different levels of smoothing (i.e. in a cockpit you can have the seat cushion faces with 90 degree smoothing, and the meral work at 45, etc) simply by selecting faces and then the smooth button. Best to leave this till later, though.
Originally posted by xenthorious
Finally, how the hell do I get an acurate polygon count suitable for FS2_SCP?
faces x 2 = polygon?
faces / 2 = polygon?
faces = polygon?
(NB: a polygon is a shape with 3+ points - squares, hexagons, etc. A face is a shape with 3 points; i.e. a triangle. You get this when triangulating - the advantage of / reason for triangulation is that a 3 pointed face cannot be curved in any way. Obviously you can alter polygons to be flat too, of course, but it's not an inherent guarentee when creating them)
Editable mesh is auto-triangulated and shows the number of faces (this would be your FS2 polycount). Theres a polygon counter in the extensions that shows your current object and scene total counts.
