3ds Max 2021 and Vray5 crashing..BADLY

[Terry Reeves]

Has anyone here experienced problems when trying to render with Vray 5 and Max 2021? This seems to crash all over the place. I am lucky if I can get even one render to go through without crashing. I am beyond frustrated with this. Beginning to wish I would have gone with twinmotion instead. I have 2 different files (of 2 different buildings) and they both crash. I am using default materials out of Vray's asset library that installs with Vray. I am also basically using default render settings. My computer specs are listed below. I just built this system a few months ago and have been happy with it. This was rendering...very fast. But not anymore. I am running my scenes and associated files on an external usb drive. I have temporarily copied them to my ssd to see if it would make a difference...but didn't seem to. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

3ds Max 2021 (as far as I can tell all updates are installed version 2021.3 update)

Vray 5, hotfix 2

Mainboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus ultra Gaming

Video: Nvidia RTX Geforce Super 2080

Memory: 64gb

Corsair AIO Liquid cooling system

AMD Ryzen 9

850w Power supply

1TB SS Drive

[James Vella]

Have you contacted Chaos Group?

Checked the Vray Error log?

 

My work PC runs Vray5/3dsmax 2021.3 - No problems so far.

 

[Terry Reeves]

The only vray log that I found on my computer, named "vraylog.txt" didn't really have much in it. Certainly nothing about crashing. I am definitely going to contact Chaos Group. Hopefully they have decent support. Max only crashes when trying to render. I can poly model all day long with no problems. I can open high poly models and scenes with no problems as well...just the rendering end. This is the reason I spent 3k on a computer so I wouldn't have to deal with problems anymore. Thank you for your response. I also tried uninstalling/reinstalling vray. Something else that may be worth mentioning, not sure if this has anything to do with it or not. When I merge something in that I created originally back when I was using Mental Ray, the scene converter pops up saying those items cant be loaded. All the model objects come through just fine. They look like they are mental ray attributes and shaders. I have been using the preset on the converter that says "remove legacy objects".

Edited January 21, 2021 by Terry Reeves
Added additional text

[James Vella]

Yes I get that mental ray issue as well opening scenes - it has no effect on the render so far. I'm usually rendering about 10-12 images per day so that shouldn't be related.

I usually click this anyway if needed.

Is vray crashing with GPU or CPU or both? 

Have you tried updating your graphics drivers to the latest?

 

[Terry Reeves]

I will re-check with nvidia, but last time I checked it was updated. It usually gives me a notification when there is an update available. I far more used to cpu rendering, since that is what I have always done. I could easily be wrong here, and please correct me if I am. I was under the understanding that if you are dealing with primarily exterior (high-poly) scenes that it was better to run cpu rendering. Am I wrong? The other thing is my cpu is liquid cooled and my gpu is not. Will vray heat up the gpu enough to possibly do damage? I have been firing off gpu renders here in the last couple of hours just so that I could answer your question. So far, it hasn't crashed. It is running on default render settings. As far as that "scene converter" dialog goes, I have been clicking the "remove" button as well. Do you also need to click the "convert scene" button?

[Terry Reeves]

Question does come to mind. If the gpu render engine works fine and does not crash, what does that mean? There should be nothing wrong with my Ryzen cpu, it has tons of power. As far as I knew it was fully compatible with vray. Someone from this forum is the one who helped me spec this system when I was building it. He was extremely helpful.

[James Vella]

Not sure, from your diagnosis it sounds cpu related, that doesnt specifically mean that its your hardware but could potentially also be how vray interacts with it. Best to get advice from Chaos Group on this one. Through the grape vine I have heard of many issues with the AMD CPU's as they need specific cooling hardware to suit (apparently there's lots on the market that are not good). I'm not an expert on this one but in the corona forums there's a giant thread on it might give you some useful information.

Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50) (corona-renderer.com)

 

I really doubt you will burn out your GPU card, I have mine running at 90degrees about 12-16 hours a day for the last 4 years no problems so far (ill even leave it rendering over the weekend or over night regularly). Its also not water cooled.

 

It doesn't really matter if its an interior or exterior scene when rendering with GPU or CPU. Its entirely up to you and how much you can cram into the vram. The 3090 with 24gb vram would handle most scenes easily especially if you optimize with proxies etc. Even 8gb cards can handle quite a lot. It also depends on what features you need, since you are using Vray there is some shaders and settings that either dont work or work differently so its basically just a pipeline thing.

 

No need to convert scene as it will convert it to Arnold. Just remove mental ray you don't need it in 3dsmax 2021.

 

 

 

[Terry Reeves]

Thanks for taking the time to share the information...appreciate it. I will look at that thread. This was supposed to be a decent AIO cooler. I have never seen it go above 70 under full load. It looked from what I read about the AMD's that wasn't bad. I have been rendering all morning with gpu running the IPR and it cant get it to crash. I am currently trying to cpu with IPR (havent tried that yet). Have just been doing cpu and hitting the old school render button. Not sure why that would make a difference but will see. So far, the IPR with cpu seems to be working. Time will tell. I just keep changing lighting/materials to force it keep updating the render. Either way I will contact Chaos group because I want to have the option to be able to do either cpu or gpu. But if gpu is all that will work for now, I will take it then. Thanks again for your time.

[James Vella]

No worries Terry. Please let us know what the issue was when you work it out as Im currently looking to buy a new system this year and an AMD cpu is on my radar. 

 

All the best, it sucks that you are going through this but on the other side the learning experience can help us all.

 

Take care,

James

[Terry Reeves]

I just noticed in the vray log window the following message. I believe it only shows up while using the vray gpu renderer, but could be wrong. "Warning: Using GPU device with display attached for rendering. UI might be sluggish." Any idea what this means? My video card is attached to a riser cable and I have the frame buffer on a separate monitor. It in an older monitor, but same resolution as my 2 newer monitors are. Do you think that message is in reference to either of those 2 things? Could that be what is crashing it? I also am suspecting (since I am using some Evermotion content) that some of their materials are funky and using features that aren't really supported anymore. Mostly unlocked highlight glossiness. I am still waiting to hear back from Choas Group.