Object not rendering with diffuse map!

[sandulea]

I downloaded a table model for my scene (.max scene, merged into mine, originally with vray materials) and part of it (the tabletop itself) just won't render with the diffuse map, it just uses solid black. However it does render with bump and specular maps, and problably other maps, but I just can't tell since it's mostly black. I used a lot of objects from Max files with Vray materials applied to then and after assigning mental ray compatible materials they rendered just fine. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? I have a few more objects and I'd rather find a solution before running into more objects with the same problem.

[sandulea]

Well I got to the bottom of it. I was deleting the skylight, because I was selecting it with ctrl+a along all the other objects to keep a single object for test renders. I did not realise this was because I also had an HDR environment that was being picked up by the specular/gloss/bump maps, but the light from it was too dim for me to see the diffuse map. The HDR map's brightness was the same with or without the skylight, and combined with the fact that in ALL my test renders I had a chrome or mirror object that neatly reflected everything around made it look like the lighting wasn't the problem. By chance I zoomed out in plan view and started started wondering why am I having a feeling that something's missing:D. And I thought I could never make mistakes like these...

[abmitalia]

happens to the best