3ds Max - Troubleshooting & General Discussion

[patriots_1228 51]

I reinstalled 3ds and BAT4Max, and now im able to render a simple box without any errors.

However, when i try to render one of my actual BATs, i get the render production error.

Im guessing this means its somthing wrong with the scene?

Im also gonna guess that this may have somthing to do with it: when i try to reset lights/cameras i get "lights/cameras have been reset to the best option available, may be necessary to make a custom camera...blah..etc."

[JakeMD 107]

Sounds like a problem dude

I cant get the textures to show up in the view port of my scene. Any suggestions?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You either need to click on the blue checkered box in the materials editor, or you need to apply a UVW Map to the object.

[JakeMD 107]

Ah, it worked, thanks jason.

[patriots_1228 51]

alright...i managed to export a small building i made today....but when I looked at it in lot editor, it was tiny (0.1x0.1x0.1 probably). I checked in 3ds, and it was 16x16. My system units were meters. Whats wrong?

[SimFox 802]

Patriot:

it was 16x16 of what??

MAX (newer versions than 7) have two sets of units - system ones and display ones. Out of box Max would be set to use Inches in either. So if you have only changed your System units but did nothing to the display ones then most probably your box is 16x16 inches.

You should see the unit in those measurment boxes if it is in meters. it would say 16m not 16

But, of course system unit is a key. BAT scripts wouldn't work with anything but meters as system units. Display you can set to inches and feet for instance if this system is more comfortable to you. It doesn't matter (just don't do it in generics). Older versions of MAX (at least Max9 ) had issues with system units being Meters. Mental ray wouldn't calculate GI correctly with orthographic cameras (the ones used in BAT) also it would display all sort of nasty artifacts on convex surfaces. But, apparently, this problem has been solved in Max2008.

[patriots_1228 51]

16 meters by 16 meters.

edit: nvm, my gmax was in generic units, so when i imported the LODs they must have been shrunken, which would explain why i could only see a tiny dot for my building in lot editor.

[SimFox 802]

That is very strange... When I set GMAX to Generic units it wouldn't export anything... window pops up saying that GMAX have to be in metric to work with BAT

[patriots_1228 51]

Really? cause i switched from generic units to meters, and i got the same message, but it said i needed generic units. So when i imported the LODs I unchecked convert units and it worked fine.

[gabry85 2]

Is there a way to lower the memory usage in 3ds Max 2008? I'm trying to render a scene with very large TGA images, but I can't open all of them in the Material Editor because of a Memory Error (I have 2030 MB of RAM). I also tried to convert those images to JPEG but with no avail. Any ideas?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

If your images are that big then you really just need to make them smaller. I can't imagine how big they would be and what you'd need them to be that big for.

[gabry85 2]

I purchased this scene with some friends from Turbosquid.com. It isn't my work and it's made up of composite maps, so I think this is supposed to work somehow, I'm confused.

However, I tried to separate the objects "Earth" and "Cloud Layer" in two different .max files and they render correctly. The problem occurs when I try to merge them together in the same scene, the render shows some mistakes for random images (meaning there's no bitmaps in particular that makes errors). Here's the report of the render and when I open the Material Editor:

X:\Image folder\image.XXX

Failed to allocate filter tables for this bitmap. Not enough memory. This bitmap may render incorrectly.

Subsequent error will not be reported.

When I try to reassign the materials I get: "Error Reading Targa File" for .tga files and "Memory Error" for .jpg files.

I even tried to enable Bitmap Proxies (on Render Scene window>Common) as suggested by the Help (Global Settings and Defaults for Bitmap Proxies Dialog) but it had no effect. Is there really no way to render these scenes without losing size/quality? Do I need more RAM for my computer?

Sorry for the long post.

[SimFox 802]

Well it is a strange...

But what ever this is it is certainly NOT the size of bitmaps. Those are included in download and it is a 19m in total.

It most probably some issues with either render settings or some plug-ins (btw did you get color-correct?)

Clouds are most probably procedural. Also the issue with tga may be not on the input but on the output side.

Do you have BAT installed?

[gabry85 2]

My plugins are V-ray, color-correct and shaderFX. I don't use BAT.

[SimFox 802]

Your memory problems must be somehow linked to your render setup.

If you didn't do anything of your own and just used what you've gotten with the files you've purchased then there must be some mistakes (accidental or deliberate) in those files. It isn't all that uncommon practice to screw render setup when just models are sold.

If it is set to be used with Scanline (as texts suggest) it may be some AA settings (particularly number of samples per pixel) that balloon the memory requirements. Or may be some Radiositiy calculations.

If you render it with V-ray check you AA type (don't use Adaptive subdivision - with some settings it can dry ANY amount of memory)

[gabry85 2]

OK, I just sent you a PM with more details of this issue, thank you!

[andreharv 1,197]

I have a problem when trying to render a custom highway interchange.  I am following Redlotus's guide but because of the issues with gmax, I am using 3dsmax.  I cut the interchange into 136 pieces and have rendereed 4 so far but one of them triggers a 'script bug'.  Redlotus provided a modified BuildMill file but it only works for gmax and I have found that it allows for the part to render in gmax but I need a version for 3dsmax so that I can follow the Bat4Max instructions.  Would anyone know what the difference between BuildMill and CPBuildmill are (codewise) and how I could modify CPBuildMill for interchanges (or otherwise fix the problem with the 'script bug')? 

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5509/scriptbugqs8.jpg

[autoVino 26]

In the rendering section of the scripts, there is a decent difference.  Other parts of the script though have similarities.  Just keep in mind that the two aren't interchangable, you can't use the gmax one for the 3ds one, nor the other way around.

Can't help much on the error since I'm blocked from imageshack, maybe someone else can though.

[andreharv 1,197]

Here is a pic...I had a little trouble figuring out how to post pictures but I think this will do.  Notice that the piece that I am trying to render is very small.

[Berethor07 110]

Hi all.

I'm having a problem with my 3ds models

In the 3dsmax the models didn't have shadows and looks quite bright comparing with the gmax models. What settings would be wrong or what is the problem?

Hope you can help me. And thanks in advance

[SimFox 802]

you have to check your lighting rig. BTW what sort of lighting do you use?

[Berethor07 110]

Thanks for answering Simfox.

I have these lightrigs:

Also in advance lighting I don't have any selected

[BurroDiablo 222]

Think I got a lighting rig problem as well...

Whats the solution to this apart from shrinking the model? I've tried a larger lighting rig but it didn't help much...

[autoVino 26]

I would try the ies sun and sky one or the mental ray sun and sky one.  Those aren't size dependant and will work for any model size.

[SimFox 802]

here here, autoVino!

It is a CRIME to use Default Rig with 3ds Max.

Not only does it have those stupid size limitations. It also too heavy on the memory - pointlessly heavy. Plus the nature of it shadow generation is such that it just doesn't work on small details. Plus where it works it leaves shadows hanging in odd places.

The only issue with Sun&Sky rig is the color balance (white balance). It is an issue and I invite anyone with experience in the matter to "get together" and share ways to deal with it, and, ideally, creating one of couple (dependent of setup) common solutions to give models more unified "look"

I'm currently in the phase of assembling my own ones. I thought to post in it Forces of light and geometry of Shadows. I invite everyone willing to joying the effort by, for instance sending me they suggestions and ideas. I'll compile them together and credit "giver", naturally...

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Hold on a sec, can scale issues have any effect on code 6 errors? I just imported an old 3ds max 7 file into my failing 9 scene, it was WAY smaller. So I scaled to match, rendering now and its rendering piddly small. I shall let you know how it turns out when the render is complete.

Edit: It didnt work.

[SimFox 802]

Ill, may I ask, is you MAX9 set to use meters as system units?

Your old MAX7 models were made in Generic units, and your system unit there was set to inch. I remember dealing with this issue when i tried to render for you one of your buildings.

Scaling anything other then on sub-object level is a bad, BAD thing to do! It will ruin your model! It doesn't really alter any dimensions but just adds sort of multiplier on top. So ANY manipulations you will be making with it later will be done to the original dimensions and then that "multiplier" will be applied on top of it . Always after ANY manipulation. It makes model useless, you can't do anything with it anymore.

What you have to do instead is to reset your units. To do so you have to:

1. Start fresh session in MAX
2. Set system unit to what ever it was in your old setup (inches in this case) and set display units to generic. This is important!
3. Done that, import you model into this session of max. 
4. Once it is safely there go back to unit setup. Leave you display units to generic (!!! don't touch this time display units - this is crucial !!!), but change your system units to meters.  Click OK to exit the unit setup altogether.
5. Now open it again. But this time around only change your display units to meters. and click OK to exit setup.

And voilá your model is now had been reset to meters without any scaling! Save file and use it to bring the model into your existing metric scenes.

And YES, all that inch-meter thing will cause Error6 as there will be mismatch of sizes used for internal calculations even if on screen everything looks fine.

[autoVino 26]

As far as I understand from looking at the script, error six is bat4max's way of telling you "I have no clue what went wrong, I just know something sent wrong"

Scale can cause an error six, especially if your units (system or scene) are incorrect or you building is too large for a single sc4model (which should cause an error in gmax first... and if it doesn't then you know that your scaling is off, probalby meaning that your system units are wrong).  Or it can be any other error that occures during render time... such as a memory error.

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Ok, have done that, rendering now

Thanks for all your help and I will let you know if it works.

Nope its just not happening.

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Idea:

I came up with a good idea whilst in the shower. The Max 9 calibration cube!

A centred 16mx16m cube saved into a file with all the correct unit setup preferances.

When a max 9 BATter begins a new model, he/she can open or merge the cube file and adopt the files system units setup! Calibrating the units correctly so the BATter doesn't have to.