Major artifacting issue in Realistic view ...

[Anonymous]

I'm 48 hours into a project and this happens ...

Does anyone know how to fix it?

[PROH]

Hi. Not much to go for. You're giving us very little information. Here's 2 quick possibilities (out of several):
1 - Is this a imported object? Check if the mesh is welded, without double faces and that all normals are correct.
2 - If it's a display problem, then simply shut the computer down, reboot and start Max again.

Hope it helps - if not, then please give us some more info and maybe the file (if possible). Would qualify the answers a lot.

[Anonymous]

Okay apologies for the lack on information, I've been following this tutorial and I've made everything from scratch so I've made sure there are no double faces, no bad welds, no double vertices. Now what is wierd, that if I isolate a single object the problem goes away but having multiple objects in the scene at once it starts to act all weird like in the picture. Have I reached some polygonal limit? Because it renders fine without those errors. I have also rebooted my PC and 3DS Max and the problem still occurs.

[Steve_Curley · Accepted solution]

So it looks bad in the viewport but renders OK? System Units (the actual units, not the display units). Using the wrong units (inappropriate for the real size of the object) will cause such artifacts (and not just with Realistic viewports), as will having the object a long way from the origin.

Customise > Units Setup > System Unit Setup. What's in there, and how big is the object (in real life and in the current units)?

[Anonymous]

Here is the link for the file and the unit set up shows up as follows. This is problem with tutorials like these that I follow, they never state at the beginning that you should set the object to scale or even show you how to set it to scale. I should of done it at the beginning, I take it that this a problem that the object is so large the program is struggling to render it?

[Anonymous]

Turns out scaling the object to a relatively smaller size, so it fit on the grid, seems to have worked. Thanks everyone!

[Steve_Curley · Accepted solution]

Firstly, you image shows the Display units - NOT the system Units. You have to click the big button at the top to get at that. If you do, you'll see that the units are Inches. So, as an example, the hexagonal base of the lantern is 1474*1281*110 INCHES. That's a big lantern...

It's not just that the model is large, it's that the scene as a whole is way too big. You have a couple of Lines - one of which is gigantic and the other doesn't seem to be doing much. Delete both of them and Max will be a lot happier.

However, that still leaves an object which is nowhere near real-life size. The entire scene needs scaling back to reality.
I'm guessing that the entire thing is about 1ft high - you'll have to adjust the following figures if it's not.
1) Customise > Units Setup > System Units Setup (that big button) and change the units to mm.
2) Change the Display Units to Generic.
3) Convert the sizes to mm - they're currently inches. Command Panel > Utilities > Rescale World. Select Scene and a value of 25.4 and OK. Everything is now mm, but still way too large.
4) Looking at the base and the estimate of the overall height it would appear to be about 1cm high, so that's what we'll aim for.
Select the Base, Utilities > Measure and it should show a height (Z) of 2794. 2794 / 254 = 11. Hmmm. That 254 value again (metric <> imperial). 11mm high base? Looks about right.
5) Easier to do this in 2 stages. back to the Rescale World, enter a value of 0.3937 (1/2.54) and OK. enter a value of 0.01 and OK.
Now if you select the base and look in the Utilities > Measure you'll see that it's now 11mm. If you Select All (except for that Plane object as it's outside the actual lantern) then overall it's around 265mm - just shy of 1ft.

Hopefully no artifacts now, and zooming/panning/orbiting should be much easier.

As you noticed, many tutorials fail miserably to "set the scene" properly right at the start. This is something you need to do at the very beginning of any project, before you model anything at all. All scenes are different - you'll have to choose carefully to balance the overall size of the scene with the smallest details you need. No point trying to model a pin-head in Miles or a city block in mm. Max will bite you if you try.

If you want some tips - use a Shaded viewport for modeling (realistic gets in the way), don't apply materials (especially dark ones) until the modeling is done. Having the different Wire colors (those automatically created when you create the objects) make it a lot easier to see what you're doing. Make the Grid full size - in your scene (untouched) it's a tiny square under the base - not much use. Right-click the Snaps button > Home Grid > deselect both checkboxes.

Keep at it - it's a nice looking model 🙂

[edit] I do hope you didn't actually Scale (with the Select and Scale Tool) - that is a seriously bad idea for all manner of reasons. [/edit]

[Anonymous]

I originally scaled it because I wasn't aware of the rescale world units utility, I followed your steps but had to go a little bit further to get it go all the way down to the grid. The measurements are now X: 106.337mm, Y: 92.374mm and Z: 190.918mm, it's probably quite close to the real world equivelant right? Thanks your help, it's much appreciated. I'll post the finished product when I've UV unwrapped it and textured it.

[Steve_Curley]

Ahh, so my estimate was at least in the right area. Slightly oversized, but what's a few mm between friends 😉

Do post an image once it's finished - always nice to see the results. 🙂