Issue with using deformers with normal direction on "Combine Geometry" meshes

Hey all,

Does anyone know if “Combine Geometry” overrides or can mess with the information about normals?

I came across some “unexpected” behavior when using “Combine Geometry”, to merge 2 meshes/shape 3Ds and use a deformer, like Ocean Wave, Ripple on that.
When switching to the “Normal” setting in the “Displacement Direction” of the deformer settings, the mesh completely disappears…
With other deformers like Displacement, it just does nothing, as if there is no deformer connected.
This only happens with Normal direction, not planar or spherical.

Is this some sort of bug or there is a way to overcome this problem?

I am attaching an example, even though this is very easy to replicate.
All settings are by default, only change is the Deformer’s “Displacement direction”, switched to “Normal”.

example_01.dfx (6.1 KB)

Thanks

Interesting find… not sure what’s going on there exactly, I’ll pass it onto the dev team. Was there a specific look you were going for, or did you just stumble upon this?

I was trying to combine 3 different Alembic sequences into one mesh, add some deformers and pass this on to a procedural.
Unfortunately, I need to use the normal deformation direction, as it makes a great difference in the look of the deformers, makes it look more natural.