'By Angle' select in edit poly broken?

[Anonymous]

Hello.

I'm using Max 2016 and I'd like to find out whether this 'by angle' function is broken for me or if there's something I can do about it because I can't find any mention of this online.

When working with highpoly game assets it's useful to be able to select flat areas that have lots of polys using the by angle feature set to a really low value, the problem is most of the time it'll select almost everything I'm clicking on, as well as everything behind it. 

This is not a backfacing issue, I can enable ignore backfacing and it won't select backfacing faces behind what I'm selecting. The problem is it selects everything facing towards me, even if it's behind what I'm clicking. It's not a low angle issue either, it's just what I use most of the time. 

Here's a simple scenario, I'm trying to select some polys on this cylinder, with by angle enabled and as you can see it's selected the polys on the cylinder, as well as stuff behind it, and even further inside the object. 

The thing is, whilst unwrapping a mesh the angle select there works flawlessly. It selects what I'm clicking and never anything behind, why do these two differ so much?

Thanks for any help.