Normals...., arrghhhhhhhhhh

[BigB2005]

Hi,
I have one problem, that i have been unable to fix.
The problem is, whatever is modelled in Max looks smooth and nicely, but when exported to .3ds , everything looks messy.
Take a look here please :

http://www.fysoftware.com/pb/problem.jpg

That mesh has a problem, but when the smooth tool is applied, he gets fixed :

http://www.fysoftware.com/pb/fix.jpg

But when the model is saved to .3ds, either in milkshape or Max, when we open it, it's all messed up again.
I can't believe this is a bug in the .3ds file format, this format has been around for ages now, so, it has to be something that we do wrong.

Can anyone help ?
thanks

[FatAssasin]

It actually is a problem with the .3ds format. Since it is such an old format it doesn't support smoothing properly. You're better off using the .obj format if you can.

[BigB2005]

And can't models be made in a way that this doens't happen ?

[FatAssasin]

Not that I know of. It's a technical limitation of the .3ds format. If you want a technical explanation open up the MaxScript reference and look up "Understanding Texture Coordinates".

[Eric Chadwick]

.3ds only supports a single UV coord per vertex, so where ever there's a UV seam, the vertices will be split.

If you still want to use .3ds, you can just re-weld the vertices in 3ds max. Easy... Sub-Object = Vertex, Select All, Weld.