topic Viewport accuracy issues in 3ds Max Forum

Viewport accuracy issues

danielDDJXC — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 08:44:38 GMT

We always work with Unit scale set to cm. This is the sweet middle spot between mm and meters.

This makes the most sense for all things that we want to create.

The only problem with this is that the 3dsmax view-port is extremely inaccurate when working in this metric.
The benefits still outweighs the disadvantages, but it would be nice if there was a way to fix this and still be able to work in a centimetre scale?

The inaccuracy get's extra bad when you zoom out.

This is what the view-port looks like:

Re: Viewport accuracy issues

RobH2 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 13:49:28 GMT

I suspect that your model is really, really far from the 0,0,0 origin or is really huge. Move everything to the origin and that issue should go away. Max is not great in either situation. Maybe it was imported from other program where it wasn't at 0,0,0? See if moving you whole scene helps.

Edit: Here is something that @BenBisares posted. It's helpful as well. https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Object-s-exhibits-polygon-z-fighting-moves-erratically-and-or-form-becomes-distorted.html?_ga=2.261673741.1671828196.1619465200-461161221.1619465200

Have a look at this, the bottom part describes the and is pretty helpful:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2021/ENU/?guid=GUID-22D2D2B9-9A82-47FA-88DD-67B1A91E2337

[Origin slider, Distance from Origin, and Accuracy]

Re: Viewport accuracy issues

RobH2 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 13:51:50 GMT

Here is something that @BenBisares posted that might explain it better.

Object-s-exhibits-polygon-z-fighting-moves-erratically-and-or-form-becomes-distorted

Re: Viewport accuracy issues

danielDDJXC — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:48:00 GMT

Thank you.
I could ofc. just merge my scene into a file with unit scale sett to meters, but I don't want to.
Meters is an inconvenient unit to type in, like; who measures a desk or coffee cup or a chamfered edge in meters?
You ofc. use centimeters like a normal sane person. Units in centimeters also transfers perfectly 1 to 1 to unreal engine.
Why can't Autodesk just make a viewport that works without Z-Fighting, when it is possible in al other 3d software?

Re: Viewport accuracy issues

RobH2 — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 21:07:45 GMT

Sure, glad if it helped.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about z-fighting being possible in other software. I use a number of them and if you have two planes that are identical and on top of each other perfectly, it causes various issues.

I pretty much use CM all the time because of the Unreal Engine compatibility and compatibility with a lot of plugins and other products. I pretty much never use Imperial units. It's just problematic frequently. It's easy enough to set Max's System units to CM and the Display units to Inches if that's preferable. I've never had issues with that. And of course, if you are doing Civil Engineering you'd use meters whereas if doing Jewelry, you's use MM. No magic there.

Just try to model and import close to the origin and all the precision issues will be minimized.

Re: Viewport accuracy issues

danielDDJXC — Mon, 03 May 2021 08:11:24 GMT

Yea, you are correct of course.

It is a limitation of the software, as such I wish they would tear out this Nitrous / active shade component and just rebuild it properly form scratch. Instead of this minimal effort patchwork approach to updates that autodesk has been doing these last 15 years.

Until then I will just have to use a work around. ^^,