Normals in 2012

[nebularJ]

I have recently installed 2012 design. I noticed right away that my back facing normals were being shown in the object color rather than black, making it difficult to distinguish normal direction. In order to help this, I set back face culling to on in the viewport config. However I much prefer my normals to be displayed in black rather than invisable, but I am unable to find this setting.

Any advise would be great. Thanks

[JoshuaK]

Hey nebularJ,

1. In the viewport configuration settings, you should see the Visual Style & Appearance panel.

2. In that panel you should see Lighting and Shadows. Default Lights should be enabled.

3. Enable 1 light instead of 2 lights and that should fix your issue.

[nebularJ]

Thanks for the reply.

I made these changes as you described but unfortunately it has not fixed my issue.

Since I still have my copy of Max 2011 installed, I checked the viewport config settings and found the scene lights were enabled. There I am getting my back facing normals in black as I am used to. With those same settings in 2012 I am still getting the object colored back facing normals.

I know those black back facing normals are still possible in 2012 as I am in the middle of Todd Daniele's "Mixed Modeling Techniques in 3ds Max 2012", and watch them displaying perfectly as I am used to.

Any other thoughts on why my issue persists?

[JoshuaK]

In 2012, the "2 light" default lighting system is enabled which gives you that colored normal on the backfaces. If you switch it to "1 light" that should restore your viewport to your preferred style.

Could you take a screen shot, just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly?

[nebularJ]

http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x379/nebularJ/3dsmaxscreenshot.jpg

The settings in the viewport configuration dialog had been applied here. I just reopened it to show how they were set.

Thanks

[nebularJ]

Okay...
After experiencing some other issues (normals being flipped after using the mirror tool and edge preview becoming distorted after a negative extrusion or mirror) I began to wonder if there was a patch available from Autodesk that might address my issues. I searched and immediately found the 3ds Max Design 2012 Service Pack 1. After installing, my issues went away.

It might be nice if there were some sort of alert in the software to tell us an update was available

I apologize for spinning your wheels, but I appreciate your help. After the SP1 install, switching to one light worked perfectly.

[JoshuaK]

I actually had to do the same thing this month. I was having issues with the normals displaying properly because of the mirror tool. Nice job figuring it out!