Live Link Viewport Empty

[LeePuznowski]

I'm currently testing Lavina with the Live Link. I have the latest stable nightly of Vray installed on 3dsmax 2021.1 on an HP Z840 with 1x 2080 Ti + 1x Titan X, Nvidia driver 446.14, Win 10 most current update. Lavina is picking up the scene fine but not showing anything in the main viewport. The small thunmbnail under -> Camera is showing correctly. Also when I save a higher resolution snapshot it is correctly exported. For some reason, I can't get the main viewport in Lavina to show the scene. The blue outline is visible.

[vladimir.nedev]

Hm, that's very strange indeed.

Maybe you selected another viewport in 3ds Max ?
Unless you have the render locked to a particular camera/viewport, it will jump in Lavina too.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[npg]

"not showing anything in the main viewport"

Do you mean you see the Lavina window background gray or a black rectangle?

[LeePuznowski]

The window background is grey with the outer blue line. The camera is locked to the Vray Camera. Also creating a new scene with two primatives and a vray sun gives me the same result. Thumbnail is there, but the main viewport is dark grey (blank). Could it possibly have something to do with the 2 different graphics cards?

[npg]

Lavina can't use the Titan X, so I don't think it is involved in the issue. It's probably a bug on our side. Does it only occur with Live Link? Does changing "Edit->Preferences->Files->Pause when app loses focus" make a difference?

[LeePuznowski]

At the moment it's happening every time with the newest Beta. The first time I opened it after installing, the standard scene with the tree started fine. After setting everything up for the Live Link it stopped working. Also when opening .vrscene files it's not showing up. The "Pause whne app loses focus" didn't make a difference.
Strangely, as mentioned, when I save a higher resolution snapshot, it comes out fine.

[npg]

Bummer. Try removing the file %appdata%\Chaos Group\Project Lavina\lavina.ini (or rename it if you don't want to lose it permanently). You could also share debug_log.txt from this folder in case it contains some error message (though I'm a bit skeptical).

[LeePuznowski]

OK, I renamed the .ini file and started up again. It opened the startup scene with the tree and was showing up in the viewport. As soon as I resized the window, it stopped again. Then even after restarting the app. it doesn't wok anymore. It seems, as long as I don't resize the window, it works. Otherwise I have to rename the .ini again

[LeePuznowski]

One thing I'm noticing is in the .ini file. When I delete the old one and a new one is created, the [WindowState] Pos=@Point is at around (300 0), but then changes to something like (3000 0) when it doesn't work anymore.

[LeePuznowski]

I also notice when rotating in the Lavina viewport, it scrolls so fast, that I can hardly see anything. Panning and zooming seems fine.

[npg]

Interesting. I'm still not sure what's going on but these are useful clues. Is it a multi-monitor setup or a remote desktop by any chance?

I think it would be best if you could upload 3 small files: a) the new ini file as created while it still works; b) the ini file saved after the app breaks (in both cases it's saved when you close the app); c) debug_log.txt after the app breaks.

[LeePuznowski]

Here are the files. The lavinaX.ini file is the one that doesn't work.

[npg]

Thank you. Unfortunately not much new info in the files. No errors in the log and the only interesting thing in the INI is this window position. But I still haven't reproduced the issue (and that's why I'm asking all these questions). The position Pos=@Point(3999 104) is outside my screen, but when I set fullscreen with Alt+Enter I can see the viewport as expected.

If I understand correctly the viewport breaks as soon as you change its dimensions in any way ("Fill" option is on). Does turning "Fill" off affect this? The option is now not on the main toolbar, but in the advanced resolution settings popup that opens from the button next to the resolution on the Camera side tab.

[LeePuznowski]

Using Alt+Enter did help. I was able to "retrieve" the viewport back with that. I've tried it several times and any time the rendered view is gone I can get it back. I am also on two 4K monitors. Thanks for the quick help.

[npg]

OK. The dual monitor setup is very likely a precondition for the issue. I would speculate that the viewport wouldn't die if you disconnected one of the monitors. So to make it clear -- when you go fullscreen the viewport is drawn again but only until you resize it which breaks it again?

Are the monitors the same model, DPI, etc. ?