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3D model not completely visible from the back
Hey there, didn't know how to accurately write a proper title, but my issue is, that in the 3d program I made my model in (Maya) you can see the backface of the mesh (as seen in picture 1). Now, when I import it to unity, you can almost not see it if you look at it straight on (seen in picture 2).
Is there a way to disable this? I need to have windows there, but it looks weird when you can't even see the frames apart from outside.
Any help is appreciated! Have a nice weekend :)
Picture 1:
Picture 2:
Answer by SpaceBird_ · May 11, 2015 at 12:27 PM
You cant see it because of a problem with normals. Imagine looking at a mirror except the reflective part is kind of like an invisible shield. When you look at the back of the mirror it looks fine but if you look at the front it is see - through. This is how the 2D ( if thats the right term ) parts of a mesh are handled. The part of your 3D object you modelled that is see - through only has one side to it. 3D modelling programs don't show this by default ( There is a mode to enable the ability to see your model in the "mirror way" but I'm sorry to say I have no idea what its called.) This is why the part is invisible. Its quite simple to fix really. Here are 2 ways to go about fixing your problem. One way is to go back into your 3D program and flip the normals or the mirror as I used in an example before around so that the non reflective part is facing the outside (ISE THIS METHOD IF YOU DONT NEED TO SEE THE INSIDE OF THE SHAPE). I don't use Maya but in blender there is a "Flip Normals" button to easily achieve this. If you ever get this problem in the future but you are working with lets say a square, what you need to do is make the 2D square into a 3D object. To do this you could simply extrude the face to make the square into a cube (USE THIS METHOD IF YOU NEED TO SEE ALL SIDES including inside OF THE OBJECT). Another simple fix that I use in blender ( I have no knowledge of Maya, sorry. Maybe you can find a similar function in Maya using the blender terms on the internet?) is to use the solidify modifier. This simply makes all geometry into 3D. Very handy. Try both methods just incase I looked at your pictures wrong. If there is any confusion I apologize, (I confused myself a little) just drop me a comment and I will clarify some more.
Good Luck
Wow sorry about the terrible formatting... I typed this on my phone and I have some bad grammar habits.
223/5000 Hi, thank you very much. I had made a model of an airplane in Blender and the wings had the same problem. Now I used the "Solidify" modifier everything works perfectly ... thank you again.
Answer by Bunny83 · May 11, 2015 at 11:37 AM
Well, the back side is almost never rendered in most shaders. If you have geometry that should be visible from both sides you have to model faces on both sides. See this video.
He actually says that there are shaders which render both sides of a face, but those have problems with lighting and are usually used only for special cases (like particles). All "common" shaders have backface culling enabled. That means some of the faces you don't see in your second image actually face the opposite direction. So you look at it's backside.
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