HL2 characters look pologonal in 3dmax

[Atomsk]

Hey everyone, I'm new here, so hello . I'm trying to get the models for HL2 into 3Dmax.

I was able to import them after using an mdl to smd convertor, but I noticed that all the models don't look quite right.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/183/alyxexamplecj1.jpg
(I didn't apply her materials yet, so she is still grey)

Its not just Alyx, all characters appear like this. I know the HL2 models come in different quality levels, but I tried them all and I think this is suppose to be the best looking one (Alyx_reference.smd).

Am I doing something wrong? Any help is appreciated.

 

[loki.be]

What about a smooth poly?

 

[Atomsk]

Well I tried Meshsmooth and regular smoothing. Is "smooth poly" different? If so I am unfamiliar with it.

Thanks for the response btw.

 

[Stormy]

Its because it has lost all its smoothing groups. Have fun reapplying!

 

[Atomsk]

Well thats annoying =\

Though I wouldn't say it lost its smoothing groups, because it still has them on. If anything it has the wrong smoothing groups?

But atleast I know a way to fix it now, thanks. I guess I'll start working on that.

Edit: Hmm, smoothing groups don't seem to have any effect (just like how meshsmooth does nothing), so I don't think thats the problem either =\.

 

[Stormy]

Right click on view port name and make sure smooth+shaded is ticked.

 

[Atomsk]

Thanks for the suggestion, however:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/8188/alyxexamplese0.jpg

As you can see in my picture, I did have Smooth+Highlights checked. Also you can see on the right side that she does appear to have smoothing groups. I left the smoothing groups the way they werw when I first opened her model, however changining them (as I said before) appeared to do nothing neither, even with smooth+highlights on.

Thanks for the help so far though, I really appreciate it.

 

[Shinobi]

hmm that's weird, what happens when you select all and put in one group?

 

[Atomsk]

Nothing happens at all to the model, however my 3dmax starts to lag as if it did do something.

 

[Stormy]

Try colapsing the modifire stack. See if that helps. Maybe the skin mod is doing something a little dodgy. I hope you know how to re-weight it or use skin utilities.

 

[oidipusss]

Try re-imorting it make sure smooth groups are turned on when importing.

 

[oidipusss]

or! make sure your material aplied to the mesh has the "faced" check-box at the top of the material properties turned off!!!