Ground Topology Issue

[todd_davis]

I have a small section of ground made of 21 polygons. When I render, some of the polys render darker than the surrounding ones;



For the life of me, I've tired everything I can think of. Editing the polys, editing the normals, creating a brand new surface from splines, editing the smoothing groups, tessellating the surface but nothing seems to work.

I've come across this issue before with another scene. If anyone could take a look see and give some advice it would greatly be appreciated!
Download for the 3ds Max file.

[fixeighted]

Too many long thin triangles to usefully create a smooth surface when the angles change so extremely.
You can retopologise the mesh to achieve a better result. Quads are friendly

[bruce_hart]

Hi Todd - couldn't open that file as I'm still on Max 2024. I would guess you have some hidden triangle edges there. If you convert this to Edit Mesh - select the whole thing via edges, and it will reveal any hidden edges as dashed red lines, which in that case may be casting shadows. I would try just a few horizontal slices through the geometry (if you haven't tried already)

[hermit.crab]

Remove the polygons' smoothing groups and notice that the faces are crooked in the viewport. Remove the excess edges whilst keeping the overall shape, and you'll get better results.

[todd_davis]

Thank you for taking a look at my issue and offering some solutions. Very much appreciated!