3dsMax 2017/2048 GFX card requirement?

[duke2]

We're upgrading to 2018 from 2016 here, and it's just crashing on our servers. What i've narrowed it down to is the graphics card - I can't start 3dsmax by itself and it just comes up with a "upgrade your drivers or use a different GPU" type error. I thought on servers it didn't require the UI, but I guess VRaySpawner starts up an instance of Max so maybe that requires it. Is this the case or have I missed something? I tried changing the graphics mode to software to no avail.

edit: 2048? Force of habit!

[kosso_olli]

We have exactly the same error when sending jobs through Backburner or starting Max on the clients. It crashes at start with that error message. Update 1 was supposed to fix this, but it doesn't on our end. I tried to contact Alfred here on the forums, but to no avail.

Read here, at Post #40:

https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...max-2018/page3

[Deflaminis]

Bah, I hate to think I missed a reply. I admittedly don't check my messages on this forum much, for the longest time I never had any. Sorry if I let you down. I do pop on here during the day but I'm being paid to work the Area forums. Ok that being said... what is the exact error message please? Let's try this again.

Best,
Alfred

[duke2]

I didn't install update 1 but I installed update 2 and it didn't fix the issue here either. Changing to Nitrous software mode instead gives me a generic "an error has occured and the application will now close" on startup.

[Deflaminis]

The next time that happens if you get a CER window please put your email address in it and send me a PM or something with it so I can search for it in the database. The data otherwise is anonymous, without a report number or the email entered I couldn't find it.

There was supposed to be some kind of warp mode switch for this if memory serves. I'll look this up in the system tomorrow when I get to work. Are either of you running Max on a virtual machine?

Best,
Alfred

[duke2]

Nope it's not a VM. I tried the -vxw (warp mode) flag to no avail. I'll add my email to the crash report next time and let you know.

[kosso_olli]

No VM here, too. It is a render slave in rack form without a GPU. Will try to start up Max and send a CER with eMail to you.
Also, the -vxw didn't help, and disabling the welcome window that was described on the area didn't work either.

[Deflaminis]

Thank you for the updates. I have to build a case up to reopen this on my end so development can investigate. In order to do this properly I have to check a few things off my list and ask a few questions, please.

1) I realize you tried the warp flag but I just need to verify the correct usage. I have an attached screenshot, can you please verify this is what you did? (I'm sure it is, I'm doing my due diligence.) The image is for 2017, I just copy/pasted it out of an article. Same process for 2018 though.

2) Have you tried the things in this article below? I wonder if the -h flag needs to be set on those boxes as well or instead of warp. The one thing I don't have at my location is a non-GPU box to test this on, so I can only suggest it.
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...-Max-2018.html

3) I need to submit CER's to development to 'prove' that this issue is still affecting people. I wouldn't ask you to post your email addresses on the forum here, but if you could email them to Alfred.DeFlaminis@autodesk.com or send me a PM with your email address used on CER submissions I would greatly appreciate it. (You've both acknowledged that you would, I'm leaving a trail of breadcrumbs in case other people post in here with the same problem.)

Thank you very much,
Alfred

[duke2]

Ok I've sent you a PM with the email I used.

I also followed the instructions here:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...n-appears.html

Firstly, I didn't have that entry in my ini file, and secondly when I entered it anyway (with the correct flag set to 0) it didn't fix it.

[kosso_olli]

Alfred,
I tried it again with the steps you mentioned. I used the -vxw flag exactly as you described, I still get the error message on startup. See attachment.
Then I tried -h as shown in the error message, and I get to choose the driver at startup. I chose Nitrous Software, but Max crashes right after startup. I entered my eMail into the CER with number CER_154347213, mail used is kossatz@px2.de
When I set the driver back to Direct 3D9 (the recommended setting), I just get the error message and Max closes, so no CER.

[kosso_olli]

Alfred,
I tried it again with the steps you mentioned. I used the - vxw flag exactly as you described, I still get the error message on startup. See attachment.
Then I tried -h as shown in the error message, and I get to choose the driver at startup. I chose Nitrous Software, but Max crashes right after startup. I entered my eMail into the CER with number CER_154347213, mail used is kossatz@px2.de
When I set the driver back to Direct 3D9 (the recommended setting), I just get the error message and Max closes, so no CER.

[Deflaminis]

Hello all. Thank you for the PM with the email address and for the report number. I was able to look up the offending bucket and I am seeing this triggering a different problem than it seems to be. It is logged and being worked on, so it's a known issue and it's not resolved yet. However some people have worked around it and there was some tips in the tracker. The tracker suggests the following article, can you please try it? https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...n-appears.html

Some users with the above issue also found solutions through this article: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...indows-10.html

If that fails, it would be great if you could post about it on the Area forums. I can't link to this thread in the tracker because the devs don't have access to the vray forums so it wouldn't help them.

Best Regards,
Alfred

[duke2]

Done: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-m...s/td-p/7351559

[kosso_olli]

I am quite busy these days, I hope I can try these steps today. Some of them I have already tested, didn't help. Basically the only thing that is left is the prosound thingy...

[duke2]

I tried everything on that page including the prosound thing to no avail...