Lighting abnormalities in transparent model.

[-Jetz-]

Pictured is the inside of a cylander, with two disproportionately bright regions. Besides the two on the inside of the cylander shown in the picture, there is one other, on the outside. The abnormal lighting rotates with the model, so it isn't related to the map. The abnormalities are in the same spot each export. The model itself is made of quads, not triangles. The one on the left in the picture is directly across from the UV map seam. The one on the right is directly across from the third abnormality, pictured with the seam below. The abnormalities did not exist when exported without transparency. I've checked the regions in question on the model itself for stray vertices and edges.



Does anyone know how to fix this? I'm rather new this modeling business.

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[Demian]

Can you PM me a blend, obj, or MilkShape txt? There really should be something wrong with the geometry and/or normals. I want to see it for myself.

Edit: Okay I get the same errors too. I have no idea why. The normals are fine and I can't find any double edges or vertices. A few suggestions though:

• The model doesn't need to be so round, a 12 vertex cylinder would work just fine.
• Your UV mapping hurts me. The cylinder was terrible. Just add a single vertical seam to the cylinder.
• You do not need to fill the gap between the inner and outer cylinder, nobody will notice the tiny gap. In fact you might not even need two cylinders. I think if you make a cylinder double sided the texture will show inside and outside of it.
• You didn't parent the mesh to Detail32.
• Don't forget to apply location, rotation, and scale.

[-Jetz-]

• The model doesn't need to be so round, a 12 vertex cylinder would work just fine.

I didn't think much of that when I created it, but I probably would have settled for less if there was an obvious easy way to change it.

• Your UV mapping hurts me. The cylinder was terrible. Just add a single vertical seam to the cylinder.

I apologize for any personal injury incurred by my UV mapping. I didn't think I could have used a single vertical seam; I tried to picture in my head what it would take to physically unwrap the model.

• You do not need to fill the gap between the inner and outer cylinder, nobody will notice the tiny gap. In fact you might not even need two cylinders. I think if you make a cylinder double sided the texture will show inside and outside of it.

Didn't think much about filling that gap. I wasn't aware that I could use double sided surfaces.

• You didn't parent the mesh to Detail32.

I read this and assumed I wasn't expected to -

The parenting goes as following: Your model hangs out all by itself, the armatures (All mountPoints and muzzlePoints) are parented detail32 and the detail32 is parented to Shape. In other words:
Shape parent of detail32 <-- detail32 parent of all armatures <-- Your model is forever alone

• Don't forget to apply location, rotation, and scale.

I'm pretty sure I tried that, but I may have slipped up. I'll retry it later if that could be the problem.

[Demian]

I read this and assumed I wasn't expected to -

Huh. I think I will trust my younger self on this. I have been suspecting for a while now that parenting is completely worthless. I've exported several fully functional models with absolutely no parenting or empties. This mesh I did parent to detail32 and that had no effect on anything.

[-Jetz-]

Huh. I think I will trust my younger self on this. I have been suspecting for a while now that parenting is completely worthless. I've exported several fully functional models with absolutely no parenting or empties. This mesh I did parent to detail32 and that had no effect on anything.

I noticed the DTS exporter had a setting for detail levels, and the first time I exported the model, I forgot those and it still technically loaded (I've been spawning models as static shapes, though, and that first model wasn't even transparent, so the validity of this example is debatable). In the export log, there is a note made of the setting provided in the exporter, but nothing special is said about the empty. Perhaps the Blender exporter handles this automatically, and notes about the requirement for empties were intended for different modeling programs? I'd try it myself, but judging by what has already resulted from trusting what feels right to me, further experimentation may lead to the model going to your house and stabbing you in your sleep.

A couple more questions about what I should do while I have the time to post(Though it will be several hours before I can get back to the model):
I wasn't aware I could utilize double sided faces in models. The tutorial you gave said to disable double sided normals then make everything point outwards. Are those two different things? If I did this, it would probably make UV mapping less complicated. The transparency will not account for this, though. Positioning the camera between the inside and outside makes neither visible.

On that note, would a single vertical seam on the double-cylinder mesh be just as easy to texture? I managed to get that one working pretty good by creating a simple symmetrical gradient, then lining up the bottom and top with the symmetrical bits.

[Demian]

Double sided faces are usually something you want to avoid in models like cars, weapons, or pretty much anything but things like your model. Since what you want is textured geometry that is not supposed to have any depth and the texture is meant to be visible both inside and outside, double sided faces completely eliminate the need for two cylinders in your case. You can simply create a cylinder, choose an arbitrary location for the UV seam, UV map it and not worry about anything else as by default models are double sided in Blender 2.49. Assuming you are not editing the cylinder geometry you do not need to worry about normals either. You could do the same thing for the plane as well.

This way you are cutting the amount of triangles in half. Rather than having 2 cylinders inside each other, one to display the texture inside and one outside, you can use 1 cylinder with double sided faces.

[-Jetz-]

This way you are cutting the amount of triangles in half. Rather than having 2 cylinders inside each other, one to display the texture inside and one outside, you can use 1 cylinder with double sided faces.

I'll try that when I get back to my other computer. That should make these lighting issues a non-issue. It would be nice to know what is wrong here for future reference, but I don't think that will keep me up at night. Whatever the case, thanks for the advice.