• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Mirror Object in GMAX

Messages
3
I've been running into a problem with objects I clone using the Mirror function in GMAX when trying to create a "flipped" or reversed version of the original. Although the resulting object's normals appear correctly in the viewport, when it is placed in FS9, it appears "inside out" - the normals have been flipped in the final.

The behavior is consistant, even when used to flip a spline (athough the rollout spline mirror tool does not result in this behavior). I have tested this by flipping the normals on the model in the GMAX viewport so the faces of the object face inward and exporting it into FS9. As before, it comes out reversed in FS9 (the object appearing correctly).

Clearly, I would prefer building a complex model in GMAX with all the normals facing they way I expect it to appear in FS9.

My best guess is that there's some setting I've missed or messed up- but at this point, I'v exhausted my knowledge of GMAX. :banghead:

I would appreciate any help.

thanks

Brien
 
Messages
31
Country
italy
Very funny, indeed....

Hi Brien, and everybody else of course.
It's very funny (indeed) that I've just registred to this forum 'cause I have the same problem as your and I was expecting to find an answer here, but it happens 'till now I've found only the question already made... :) . And it's much boring to be compelled to re-model something that would be easly done just by mirroring or flipping some other object, only because makemdl or bglcomp are probably unable to manage with mirrored or flipped surfaces. I really hope there is a solution for this :confused:
Thaks for any advice.

Ciao, Lib.
 

rhumbaflappy

Administrator
Staff member
Resource contributor
Messages
5,932
Country
us-wisconsin
Hi Brien.

Why not attach a small, non-textured gmax example. That way we can play with it.

Dick
 
Messages
383
Country
unitedkingdom
Hi Guys

I take it you are using the 'Mirror Selected Objects' button on the tool bar, if so, this does indeed flip the normals when viewed in FS9. Instead of using this, select the object you want to mirror, then go into the modify tab and choose 'mirror' from the drop down menu, you can then tick copy, you also may need to change the mirror axis. Now set the Offset. I always use this and have never had any problems with flipped normals in FS9.

hope it helps

Stevo :)
 

connomar

Resource contributor
Messages
263
Country
us-minnesota
Having mirrored an object, is there a way of splitting the object back into two? I want to create opening doors - think French Doors in a house - but once mirrored, it seems to become a single entity.
 
Messages
898
Country
denmark
Having mirrored an object, is there a way of splitting the object back into two? I want to create opening doors - think French Doors in a house - but once mirrored, it seems to become a single entity.
You can group the elements, mirror and then ungroup.
 

hairyspin

Resource contributor
Messages
3,253
Country
unitedkingdom
You can group the elements, mirror and then ungroup.

Um, Groups are best avoided. Having used a mirror modifier, add an Edit Mesh modifier or collapse the stack, then select the Element sub-object you want separated and Detach as an object.
 
Last edited:
Messages
10,088
Country
us-arizona
I like to make a fuselage all in 'one side', then double it, weld it, and brake the doors and windows loose. Same for wings. Do one side, then mirror it, brake the parts loose and animate them then. Same for mapping. Get it all mapped, then duplicate and mirror. Half your work is done. At least for the wings and landing gear. The fuselage, you almost want to map it with the other half mirrored already.

I never animate doors before mapping, these days. I can, but I attach the doors and then map, then re-detach and animate (again) so that the mapping is extreme precision and not all messed up.
 
Messages
10,088
Country
us-arizona
I dont know if Gmax has it, but in Max, you have 'Symmetry' where you can view the other side of the fuselage as you make the first side. Gives you a better idea how its going. Mirror works also, I guess. With Symmetry, you can turn it on and off with the Space bar on the keyboard. Also, you can build the model in basic mesh and use NURMS or Mesh Smooth to 'auto smooth it' to see how its looking in proper smoothed mode. Just have to be careful with polygon counts.
 

hairyspin

Resource contributor
Messages
3,253
Country
unitedkingdom
Bill, you should know better, lol! That's why you saved so long for Max, to get these better tools. Even my old Max 2008 has Symmetry, but not Gmax.
 
Top