Intense and peculiar normals when part is highlighted ingame

[Balto-the-Wolf-Dog]

Another installment in the continued conflict between my models and the way KSP handles normals (although post 1.1 has been a lot prettier)

I've made a relatively geometrically complicated (though not unreasonable) thruster in the same style and with the same modeling approach as the rest of my (many) parts, and it looks great ingame under normal circumstances

=

There's just one problem: One I've never encountered before despite using the same styling and methodology in all my production. When highlighted, it looks like this:

There's nothing special about the model close as I can tell. Initially I suspected it might have to do with double sided faces, but there's no visible interior in unity so it seems to check out.

 

In 3ds Max, wireframe and normal:

The model is complicated but regular, and the geometry itself seems to check out. I'm at a loss.

[nli2work]

something with unity set up. remove mesh filter and mesh renderer components from collider object. The collider object should only have Collider component in most intances: Box/Sphere/Capsule/Mesh. Mesh collider should be marked Convex. For this particular part, it's best to create a low res mesh for collider object.

[Balto-the-Wolf-Dog]

1 hour ago, nli2work said:

something with unity set up. remove mesh filter and mesh renderer components from collider object. The collider object should only have Collider component in most intances: Box/Sphere/Capsule/Mesh. Mesh collider should be marked Convex. For this particular part, it's best to create a low res mesh for collider object.

No dice. Thought I might have forgotten that when you mentioned it but I guess not. Although its always entirely possible I'm forgetting something else obvious

 

Edit: I fixed it. Evidently the model import was importing tangents as opposed to calculating tangent space, and that was breaking the highlight.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Balto-the-Wolf-Dog

[nli2work]

I see, so the source mesh is messed up... in that case it'd be better to fix it in Max before exporting. I don't know which version you are working with, but with 2015 there's occasional issues with FBX export, I add an STL check modifier before export, that usually keeps things in order. 

Importing tangents is important if you are baking Normals from Max as the pixel values are calculated based on the vertex tangents. When you calculate tangent in Unity, you are likely to get different Tangents on some vertices and you end up with display artifacts after applying the normal map. If you are just creating Normal maps from bump maps, using Unity to calculate tangets not much of an issue.

Edited June 16, 2016 by nli2work

[InsaneDruid]

That mesh is a total mess. Especially for such a simple shape.

Redo with proper geometry.