Polygons overlapping in viewport

[gazbo]

Hi all,

 

I've got a problem where polygons aren't displaying in the correct order in my viewport, ie. you can see through objects to objects behind them when you shouldn't be able to. Initially I just accepted it because it's getting to be quite a complex scene but I've noticed when I zoom out everything displays correctly. I thought rather than struggle on with something that is very difficult to look at for long periods I'd ask if it's possible to fix?

 

I'm running max 2011 64, my graphics card is an ati radeon hd 5450 and I'm currently using Directx 9, I tried switching to 10 but then some objects didn't display at all??

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Gareth

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41820[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]41819[/ATTACH]

[JonRashid]

It sounds like the focal distance on ur vieport is at an extreme. You can reset the perspective to a reasonable 1 somewhere. I usually reset camera or reset viewport

[gazbo]

Do you mean Field-of view? Because I put focal distance into help and it drew a blank. I've tried playing around with field of view and it changes the point at which the problem occurs when I zoom in and out but doesn't really provide a solution.

 

Any other thoughts?

[sanmb]

Yes,what jon suggest is right. I hope all of them are doing same.

If u r confident of modelling just render it and it doesn't matter if it is showing overlapping in viewport.

Finally it is output that matters!!!

[gazbo]

I agree it is the final output that matters and it renders fine and looks as it should, it's just that I'm designing as I model and looking at all those overlapping polygons is giving me a headache!

 

I just thought that if it can display things correctly when I zoom out slightly there must be some setting I can change to get it to show properly all the time???

[mattclinch]

your model is too far from the origin of the scene. the numbers are so large max is having to do some minute behind-the-scenes rounding up and down of object coordinates, and this is confusing its order of objects.

 

either move your model closer to 0,0,0 , or merge your scene into a scene with scene scale set as 1 unit = 1 metre, convert the merged objects and then set display units to your preference - mm/m/cm etc.

[gazbo]

Ha ha!! Thanks Matt, converting scene scale to meters has worked a treat. The models wasn't far from the origin but it was in mm on a building that's over 200m long so I guess there were some pretty large numbers for max to crunch.

 

The only thing that worries me slightly is that on perusing the help files it says not to make any significant detail of your scene smaller than a single unit. Now the units are set to meters, there are plenty of slender steels in the model well under a meter thick, they all seem to display ok but should I be concerned? I tried setting to cm as a halfway measure but it doesn't display nearly as well as m.

 

Cheers for this, I can't believe I've used max for years and just put up with this because I always work in mm!!

[mattclinch]

have always used 1 unit = 1 metre and never had any issues - from city masterplans to skyscrapers to individual houses.

 

can't believe you've put up with max looking like that for years... set your display units to mm and you can still work in mm.

[gazbo]

Brilliant! Yup if I carried on much longer I think I'd have ended up completely bos-eyed! I always assumed it was because I didn't have a very good graphics card but since I upgraded I thought 'this isn't right'

 

Ah if I had time I'd jump on a train down to London and give you a big kiss... you'll be relieved that I'm just going to say a big thank you instead.

[sanmb]

Oops,I thought u r using same units as Matt said.

It is always better to use minimum units.

God Luck.