Uneven part lighting issues - another noob question

[Fengist]

Ok. I'm still learning at this and again, I've ran into an issue I can't quite figure out so, I'm asking the masters.

Below is an image of my part. I've tried various lighting in Unity from diffuse to bumped specular (with a bumpmap) and I can't get my lighting right. This image is an early morning shot and you can see plainly where my parts connect. It's shaded in the rear and lit in the front. I'm not so much worried about the 'wood' texture just yet, my question is, what am I doing wrong to get such uneven lighting. I'd prefer it look somewhat uniform where the parts connect.

[Squiggsy]

when this has happened to me in the past it has invariably been a problem with the normals in blender or with how I've shaded it,

either you have some fipped normals in which case (if you are using blender) you can just select all in edit mode and hit control+ n and flip normals. If it's not that you might have shading problems in which case you just need to select all in object mode, then on your toolbar select smooth shading and then go around marking which edges you want to be sharp in edit mode by selecting them and pressing control+e then "mark sharp". then go to the modifiers menu and select the edge split modifier.

sorry if it's neither of these or if you already know all of this, thought i'd explain in as much detail as possible in case you didn't, also sorry if you're not using Blender, I don't know how to use any other programs!

Hope this helps though!

[Fengist]

Thanks Squigs,

Since Blender is beyond me atm, I'm using Wings3D. Most of what I'm doing is really simple stuff. I made sure to go through my parts before exporting them and marked the 'softness/hardness'. One thing I did do is I left the edges with connection nodes marked as 'hard'. Using your suggestion, I went in, marked them as 'soft', and... I think it's even worse now

[Squiggsy]

ahaha yeah I have no idea where to start with wings3d I've always used blender, searching on google a bit just now has assured me that they are so different that the edge split modifier in blender doesnt seem to have a clear equivalent in Wings and you can't flip normals for just select vertices in Wings either so both my suggestions get thrown out the window.

how about you spend ages learning blender just so I can actually help you eh? haha no sorry I couldn't be of more help I hope someone comes along with better knowledge of the program, but I am willing to bet that it isn't a problem in unity but a problem in wings with the model

[Fengist]

lol, Blender... eventually. I'm still trying to get the hang of all this part modding stuff. All I can confirm now is that I have created parts before in Wings and the lighting worked fine. What seems to be happening is that when I connect the parts in the SPH, they're not getting joined into a single part for lighting purposes. I thot it might be my connection nodes but I've gone over them and they look pretty good. I tried adding the 'rimFalloff' and that did nothing. Right now, I dunno.

[Fengist]

Ok, so I loaded up Blender and attempted to follow your instructions. I didn't get an option to 'flip' normals but if you mean internal normals, I tried that and ummm... my texture ended up on the inside. As for marking the edges, I attempted that and couldn't quite figure out the process. Either way, I've gone through a few hundred iterations of this part and it still not shading properly.

- - - Updated - - -

Update: Well Squigs, you're right, I'm just not sure whether my fix is 'legal'. It's apparently the normals. I selected my main .obj import in Unity and changed the normals to calculate rather than import and, the part shades like it should. I'm just not sure in Wings how to change the normals. It has nothing like that that I know of.

[Squiggsy]

Ok, so I loaded up Blender and attempted to follow your instructions. I didn't get an option to 'flip' normals but if you mean internal normals, I tried that and ummm... my texture ended up on the inside. As for marking the edges, I attempted that and couldn't quite figure out the process. Either way, I've gone through a few hundred iterations of this part and it still not shading properly.

- - - Updated - - -

Update: Well Squigs, you're right, I'm just not sure whether my fix is 'legal'. It's apparently the normals. I selected my main .obj import in Unity and changed the normals to calculate rather than import and, the part shades like it should. I'm just not sure in Wings how to change the normals. It has nothing like that that I know of.

ahah! I thought it'd be to do with the normals! Apparently in Wings there is no way to change normals for specific vertices or faces, only the entire object (which would result on the texture on the inside problem you had in blender the first time), at least that was the information I found from my 10 minutes looking on google that may be wrong.

glad you got it sorted though

[Fengist]

Took me a bit longer to try to determine what a 'normal' is and no, it has an 'inverse' command which works on the entire object, exactly like the blender effect I created. It won't allow me to inverse a face or a vertex. Wings may seem pretty simplistic compared to Blender, but for quickly creating a part without having to remember gobs of hotkeys... I rather like it. Thanks again Squigs.

[Squiggsy]

Took me a bit longer to try to determine what a 'normal' is and no, it has an 'inverse' command which works on the entire object, exactly like the blender effect I created. It won't allow me to inverse a face or a vertex. Wings may seem pretty simplistic compared to Blender, but for quickly creating a part without having to remember gobs of hotkeys... I rather like it. Thanks again Squigs.

no worries and haha yes Blender has some rediculous hotkeys, the most rediculous one, which I have to use all the time is Control+alt+shift+c you need to be a contortionist for some of them!