Max scenes not closing properly

[tricky]

I seem to be full of random problems these days!

Do any of you have problems whereby a max scene just will not close down, and the only way to close it properly (and free up the associated RAM etc) is to go to Task Manager and end the 3dsmax.exe process? I am having to do it more and more these days. Its normally with complex interior scenes - lots of furniture, textures and lights.

I cannot fathom why this happens, but normally, this is my process:

I save the scene,
I click on close (in the normal fashion)
If nothing seems to happen after a couple of minutes, and the RAM use is not moving (up or down - just sitting there), I end the max process in Task Manager.

More often than not, as well as the RAM use being static, a CPU core appears to be working (we are on 4/8 core i& CPUs, and it quite often reads out 13% activity, with the ram unchanging).

Why is this?
What is the solution?

I don't know if it is max related or vray related.

[Morne]

Does your max version have all the latest service packs, or updates as they call them now?

[tricky]

I will double check - I had assumed so...

Yes - product update 12

[instinct]

Are you using colorcorrect? (The plugin, not the built-in in newer versions)

[tricky]

Are you using colorcorrect? (The plugin, not the built-in in newer versions)

Only the built in version (I am unsure if it is built into max2012 or vray 2?)

[instinct]

Built-in max. I was asking because there is a known bug (or was? no idea) that caused max not to close properly. Might be a similar bug in another plugin?

[tricky]

Built-in max. I was asking because there is a known bug (or was? no idea) that caused max not to close properly. Might be a similar bug in another plugin?

We don't use many plugins. The main ones are BerconMaps and Multitexture - they are used in 90% of our projects. How would I 'remove' all traces from a problem scene and test?

[flino2004]

I'm guessing but since I turned my auto backup off and I don't have that problem anymore.

[Pixelcon]

Mine does this too. Have you tried resetting the scene first then trying to close max?
Seems to be the only way I can get mine to shut down...

[tricky]

Mine does this too. Have you tried resetting the scene first then trying to close max?
Seems to be the only way I can get mine to shut down...

That's worth a shot.

Do you use any plugins regularly?

[yyk]

Yeah I have this also, sometimes a scene slows down considerably during a long days work and it's then that I notice it is constantly occupying a core, 13%, same as you, and at that point the file is a lost cause and the only way around it is to merge to a new scene. I'm not sure but it could have something to do with that whole Notetracks business ( http://arddigital.co.uk/remove-notet...ds-max-scenes/ ), I've also suspected my workflow of using merge a lot, maybe I'm dragging some corrupt object along. Also I don't remember having it before I started using Forest Pack last summer but this is all just guesswork.

[tricky]

Mmm. I'm not so sure. I am convinced it is to do with either BerconTile and/or Multitexture. I have a scene that was running quite smoothly - saving and closing. I have just applied my bercontile/multitexture floor and now it sits for ages/ever trying to close. I am going to try and delete the texture and see if the problem goes away.

(If I delete the suspect texture from the material editor and apply something different to the geometry, does the suspect texture get cleaned out of the max file entirely, or will I need to 'purge' it?)

[DanielBrew]

(If I delete the suspect texture from the material editor and apply something different to the geometry, does the suspect texture get cleaned out of the max file entirely, or will I need to 'purge' it?)

Yes it should do. But if you want to be sure then you can type (or copy and paste) into the listener:

getClassInstances berconTile processAllAnimatables:true

If it returns #() it means there are no bercon tiles in your scene.

And to check for multitexture:

getClassInstances multiTexture processAllAnimatables:true

[tiw]

You can try and add this script to your "...Scripts\Startup" scripts:

callbacks.addScript #postSystemShutdown "((dotNetObject \"System.Diagnostics.Process\").GetCurrentProcess()).Kill()" id:#killMax_CBK
callbacks.addScript #preSystemShutdown "((dotNetObject \"System.Diagnostics.Process\").GetCurrentProcess()).Kill()" id:#killMax_CBK

[tricky]

Cheers guys. After further digging, I found a thread referring to a script called Cleaner. This found over 25 million notetracks in one of my problem scenes, over 15 million in another and 8 million in another. Clearing these seems to (for the moment at least) have solved my issues

I therefore don't believe it is related to bercon or multitexture, but more likely some geometry I am importing from my assets library which brings with it all this crap.