Materials disappearing when merged...

[Kawzy]

I'm not really sure if this is a Vray or a Max issue, but we've just encountered something strange. We've upgraded to 3ds Max 2013, Vray 2.30.01, and there seems to be a problem when you merge an object into a scene. When merging a building a co-worker was texturing, all of the materials that had bitmaps in the diffuse slot misteriously lost their bitmaps. The material is named, the diffuse color comes across, and there is even a bitmap applied to the diffuse channel, but the jpeg map that was once there, located on a network path, is replace with "jpeg file" and no map is present.

 

We've tested this with previous working models, such as cars with maps applied, and it happens with them as well. The only objects that seem to come in with proper materials are proxied objects.

 

Any thoughts?

[Francisco Penaloza]

Max 2013 was having serious bugs with the import, they did re-writhe the process with the idea of consolidation for all languages, but of course they had some "issues", this was mostly noticed with Sketchup importing, all maps where showing in Chinese

Try to download the latest service pack for Max, most of those issues are resolved now.

if not maybe the path where not linked right in the first model. Other than that submit your problem to Autodesk.

[Kawzy]

Latest service pack has been installed.

 

The problem isn't with the linking of paths, but it appears that the problem is entirely random. After merging the model multiple times, it will eventually work the way it should. Then the dice get rolled again as another model is merged. Sometimes, things will work just fine back to back. Sometimes maps will be removed.

 

We may start a local gambling circle, and Autodesk will now be responsible for supplementing a bad habit on top of the hair pulling frustration at times.

[Scott Schroeder]

What does it say for the path when you use asset tracker or the relink bitmaps script (http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/relink-bitmaps)?

 

Make sure that your paths are correct on your machine as well as the coworkers machine. Are you using absolute or relative paths?

[Kawzy]

When opening the asset tracker, the maps in question are not even listed. That was the first thing I checked. Max is just straight dumping them out of the diffuse slot, showing that there was a jpeg file loaded, but not listing what the file was or the path it's possibly trying to find it under. It says nothing more than "jpeg file", and doesn't list them in asset tracker. Even when using the old Bitmap/Photometric paths tool, it shows that no maps are missing. If the file is saved, then re-opened, there are no warnings about maps not being found, there just aren't any maps.

We use absolute paths, which I know many are against, but all of our machines pull information from network locations, and all use the exact same roots.

The paths are correct. His machine shows them being all pulled from our network location.It isn't a workflow thing... we've worked like this as a team for five+ years.

[kw_maher]

Did you get any further with resolving this? It's been happening to me for ages, and is really very inconvenient and frustrating.

This seems to be the only thread I can find that even details the symptoms correctly.

 

To confirm to anyone that may be able to help, the issue isn't a broken path, it's the record of any path not being there whatsoever. In the material editor, where the bitmap map usually contains the image file name, the dialogue just says "JPEG File". It doesn't even hint at a filename that I can go back and relink.

 

As Josh has expressed, this is completely random. It's not an issue across Max versions, or different workstations, or different drives/networks.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

Edit:

Oh, and I don't think its a vray issue at all. I use MR.

Edited April 12, 2013 by kw_maher

[Omar Essam]

This problems happens to me also... exactly as you explained.. and I had to relink maps one by one manually.. this is so time wasting specially with models that has loads of maps..

Anyone had solutions????

[Kawzy]

It's upsetting to see its still an issue.

The issue hasn't been replicated for us for some time, whether it was a newer service pack that fixed it or not I don't know.

It seems once all of our assets were gradually migrated to max 2013, things are back to normal. It's now rare that we merge in assets that were previously 2012. That seemed to be the most common appearance of the problem. We are now just starting into 2014... I'm sure I'll get to post on some other bug that pops up now.

When it was happening, sometimes you could get lucky and it would work if you closed out of Max, open your scene and re-merge. I never found a solid solution, despite a few phone calls to support. I've been using Max for quite some time, and they just kept saying that my scene was probably mapped incorrectly, even after sending archived files of a scene it happened in and one that was working properly to show that I knew how to create a texture. The fact that it was also a problem for a handful of Mental ray users supports that it was on the Autodesk end.

 

I wish I had a solution for you. If you find one, I would be curious as to what it is, but hopefully it phases away for you also.

[Omar Essam]

Thanks Josh,

I just forgot to mention that this happens to me with max 2012.. not 2013,

but I'll switch to 2014 soon, I hope this problem won't be happening there.

and btw, it's funny how Autodesk is trying to blame the user, just like any other customer service

[Casey Hawley]

Yes, this suddenly started happening to me as well, and I was using 2010. A colleague of mine started seeing it suddenly and he still uses 2009! As with me, it just seemed to start happening all of a sudden because we both had been using our respective Max versions for a long time without this problem. I'm on 2013 now and it hasn't happened. I hope it stays that way as it was very annoying.

[DANKITCHENS]

I've had this problem for years, from Max versions 2012 - 2023. I'd love a solution, I came across this post and thought EUREKA! Sadly, this post does not have answer.