Maya automatically rounding edges / vertex normals, help?

[bob.blunderton]

I have a problem here, I'll post the screenshot link below (safe for work)

^^That should not be a visible edge, it's not even an angle more than 1 degree^^

Maya LT keeps murdering the edges whenever I use the bend tool to make different increasing/decreasing highway gradient pieces here.  This looks terrible.  In-fact, it's so frustrating to have pieces come out gorgeous in the daytime and horrible at night I'm considering finally throwing in the towel.  I've wasted hours messing with vertex normals and it still looks awful.

I can't use this program in production if this is how it is in it's current state.  I've had many problems much worse than this and it's cost me a whole lot of time already - days upon days - going back and fixing what I already did.

Is there any way to prevent this idiotic program feature from automatically smoothing edges of the normals?  It's ruining everything.  I just want things to face the way they normally do - up faces up - sideways faces sideways, etc.  It's the complete utter inconsistency that's messing everything up.

I fixed these on a flat piece, ran a bend routine (10 times each way for various hill grades), and it just makes a wreck of everything.

I understand vertex normals and all that are the root cause of this issue.  I just want to know how I can tell it not to screw those up all the time.  There's not a single piece except maybe a building made from a simple cube with all right angles that this thing hasn't murdered.

Help?

--Frustrated Maya LT user in Tennessee...

More shots below:

An example that just happens to be floating nearby, so you can see the edges it's murdering.  It's tapered so that in the event the game engine's floating point nature places it off by a half inch or so either way, you don't see 'under' or 'between' the pieces between times you save & load the game environment.

It's done this many many times and I am at wit's end with this program.  It's possibly the most frustrating thing I've ever used in 25+ years of computing.  So please don't take it personally that I'm not very fond of it as of late - especially not seeing as it's a monthly payment set-up.

Nothing like doing days/hours of work only to see the automated 'Features' messing everything up.

This program is NOT ready for use production in it's current state.  Currently looking for other programs.

If I can just shut off that 'feature' it'd be fantastic.  I'd just like things to point the way the face is pointing, and STAY that way.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @bob.blunderton

Its a bit hard to tell from the screenshots but it looks like it could be one of a few things.

1. It may be the tiling of the texture causing that seam. Can you check to see if that where that harsh edge is appearing is where the texture seam is?

2. The edge may be set to hard/soft which you can play around with by going to Mesh Display->Soften/Harden Edge.

3. It may be due to the gap in the pieces which you could fix by welding the vertices together assuming it isn't all one model.

If the above doesn't help, when you get a chance can you please zip and attach the scene file here or via dropbox/google drive or another file sharing program so I can take a look at it? If the file is confidential or under NDA please send it to me in a private message instead of posting it here.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @bob.blunderton

Just wanted to check in to see how things were going. Are you still having this issue?

If your issue is resolved, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[bob.blunderton]

It's not the texture, the texture is fine.  It seams across the piece in a few spots & the problem is only at the edge after I taper the edges down.

Is there a way to 'freeze' the UV's, before I lower all the edges of it, so that when I make the edges tapered (pull them down) it won't re-angle the normals? (as the pieces are spawned in the map via floating point math, which by nature, a float is 'rounded' not a perfect number, so they may move a bit - 0.1~2cm, tapering the edges reduces gaps or other obvious seams in the map that would otherwise sometimes be visible to the player).

I couldn't find anything on this on the help center or the forum.

If I use 'harden edges', the seams then show up light night and day - especially - at night, if the pieces aren't 100% perfectly lined up (that happens).

It's this auto-smooth edges that this program does, that's causing a more serious issue than if it just left all edges hard by default.  I am building a city where only 1% of the time are rounded edges useful and desired.  Can I shut off auto-smoothing edges somewhere?

Plus when I go to re-angle the normals, it's hard to get the right as the rotation jig you have to rotate around isn't on the X and Y axis by default when more than one point is selected, making it hard to get it right.

In other words, the city I am making with this program is really coming out looking like trash.  I have to go back and spend days/weeks now re-doing lots of stuff already and I'm only 6 months into this software.

Is there a way to 'copy' just the normal's facing from a 'good' vertice to other offending vertices?

Sorry I didn't get back to you, I couldn't take any more Maya for a while - the camera not being consistent while working on large pieces (it frequently stops working, it grinds to a halt, I have to scroll or move the mouse half a dozen times to get it to move again), got me so mad after a few hours I couldn't stand to think of this program for a week or two.

I know this is a whole new topic, but any way to get the camera to be CONSISTENT, instead of zooming so far, then stopping, then zooming at LIGHT speed again without warning?  It's absolutely infuriating and preventing me from being able to work properly on it.  This program works against my sanity like nothing I have ever experienced in 25+ years of computing (to no fault of yours, it's not you, it's the design choices made in this software, that leave me scratching my head, when I'm not ripping out my own hair, or having it fall out by itself from trying to use it).

Thanks ahead of time.  Will try and check back sooner.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @bob.blunderton

If you double click on your move tool one the left side of the viewport you can enable preserve UVs. This should allow you to slightly manipulate the model without affecting your uv maps too much.

Also just a small note it is generally recommended to have any gaps in meshes or inbetween meshes filled 100% by proper snapping or alignment to prevent issues like this. You could always check your models in Maya and make sure they snap to the grid properly that way everything can meet up perfectly and prevent seams.

Finally, if none of that helps when you get a chance can you please zip and attach the scene file here or via dropbox/google drive or another file sharing program so I can take a look at it? If the file is confidential or under NDA please send it to me in a private message instead of posting it here.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @bob.blunderton

I know you're busy and can't check here often so just to let you know I will be in the office tomorrow but after that I will be on vacation until January 2nd. If you get back to me while I'm out I'll be sure to respond first thing that morning!

Happy Holidays!