Model disappears..please help!

[Azrael_CH]

hey guys,
i'm workin on a japanese village project, but i have a problem with the models.
in nifskope everything works fine and collision has been set up correctly as well,
but ingame i discovered that when i get closer to the model ,or under certain angles, parts of it disappear.

Does anyone know why this happens?

[nick_op]

Welcome to Silgrad!

Did you reset the x-form in your 3d program? Failing to do so can result in errors like you describe. I can't think of anything else that would cause such behaviour, but I'm no expert.

Hope that helps.

[Azrael_CH]

ive tried using Reset X-form, but every time i do it completely screws up my model in 3ds max (7), so i'm a little reluctant to use it...

[nick_op]

What type of moedl is it (e.g weapon, architecture)?

I know that resetting the x-form on a model after it's rigged can cause things to go wrong, but I've never had any problems on models that aren't rigged.

I'd recommend making a backup of your model and resetting the x-form on it, so you can roll back if anything goes wrong.

If that doesn't work, either upload the model somewhere or send me a PM asking for my email address so I can look at the model. As long as you've not got any Max 7 specific modifiers in your stack I should be able to open it in Max 6.

[Azrael_CH]

thanks, but i tried resetteing the Xform to see if it would fix the problem (worry about the fact that it screws my model up later), problem became slightly less, but it was still there.

Is oblivion picky about the shape of objects? (i noticed the the simple cubes that i have in the model dont ever disappear, its only the complex objects that seem to cause problems)

oh yeah, it a static object(house)

[Ghogiel]

As mentioned, you will have to reset the meshes transforms before export, in max this is done by "reset xform". If you reset xform in the max scene and your mesh faces invert, this is probably what you mean by completely screws up the model. This is because your mesh has inverted face normals, and xfrom just points the faces the way the normals are facing, probably because you have mirrored it along the way.. anyway, after resting xform, flip all the faces or add a normal modifier and invert faces. collapse the modifier stack then export.

Oblivion is not any more picky about a particular shape of mesh then any other engine will be. I've gotten away with lots of crappy modelling

Disappearing mesh parts is usually mesh/face issues, normals and that end of things. mipmaps on textures, or a alpha issue. they all have slightly different symptoms... more likely your mesh wasn't ready for export

[Azrael_CH]

ive all but fixed the problem,
it was the xform.

thanks for your advices guys^^

[BusterWolF]

I guess this should be moved to the FAQ board. This could help alot of people.

[Razorwing]

It seems it was the reset xform in this case. But when I read the initial post of this thread I was reminded of another problem, namely what happens if you export a model with the "Collapse All" option: parts of the model will flicker back and forth between visible and invisible. Here's an old discussion on that subject. (Having said that, I don't know if this tidbit still applies to the current version of the nif exporter)

Thread moved to the faq board