Send animation/Cosmos issue

[fixeighted]

I just noticed that with Vantage not open, if I send an animated scene from Max to Vantage, it will of course auto-open Vantage and load the scene.
When I then try to open Cosmos it does not open. It tries, constantly, with a flashing 'loading' icon, but never does, so needs a restart.
If Vantage is already open then there is no problem. So not a big deal but I thought to flag it

[npg]

Yeah, I know why this could happen. Thanks for reporting it -- it was unnoticed so far.

When Vantage is started by 3ds Max it inherits some environment variables that affect the library we use to display the embedded Cosmos web page. These are set to work for 3ds Max but apparently the values break Vantage.

[npg]

Actually I can't reproduce it and the variable I thought was involved is not set by 3ds Max. At least not on my machine

So it could be something else entirely ...

Could you check the following when the issue happens and Cosmos is failing to start: Open Task Manager and check for a process named QtWebEngineProcess.exe (in the Details tab). Right click -> Properties and check the location of the file. Is it in the Vantage folder or somewhere else?

Also a screenshot might be useful because I'm not sure what the flashing icon you mentioned is.

[fixeighted]

Here's a grab with what used to be the spinning hourglass, now a spinny circle thingy.
I have 2 Qt processes in task manager, both pointing to C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\ with an ip address here
Also the task manager is showing Vantage flashing on/off when this is happening.

I'll try to see if a reboot sorts it out but can't do that until a bit later, as I'm currently fighting zombie hordes

[npg]

When you say "Qt processes" do you mean specifically QtWebEngineProcess? A lot of things use Qt, so I want to avoid misunderstandings. And you see these and no other QtWebEngineProcess while the blue circle is spinning?

Is there a difference if you first close the Dropbox app/service? Is the environment variable QTWEBENGINEPROCESS_PATH set and to what value?

[fixeighted]

Yes I mean QtWebEngineProcess.exe, so when dropbox is closed down then both those disappear.
With Vantage open and Cosmos working, or when it fails to, there are no QtWebEngineProcess.exe processes running in either case.

EDIT: I don't see any QtWebEngineProcess in the variables list at all.

[npg]

Huh, weird. Whenever you open the embedded Cosmos browser in Vantage, it starts QtWebEngineProcess.exe internally. It can't work without this process, this is what renders the webpage.

[fixeighted]

Ok, so when I looked for the QtWebEngineProcess it was only listed for dropbox, as I said...however I now see that it is listed within the 3dsmax process list, which I didn't think to look at until just now,
as I thought they would also be in the background processes list.
Those two entries point to the Max root.
Unfortunately I can't tell whether there are any trying to run in the Vantage dropdown list, as it just goes off/on too quickly, so can't access the dropdown.
With a normally functioning Vantage open, there are still no QtWebEngineProcess entries in its dropdown, only two C++ App development framework entries.

[npg]

Yeah, this is why I suggested using the "Details" tab in Task Manager, it just shows everything.

Anyway, I made a speculative attempt to fix the issue (since I couldn't reproduce it) by clearing the relevant environment variable. It will be in patch 1.6.2, tomorrow. If this doesn't work we'll have to find a way to reproduce the bug. Does it occur consistently on your machine?

[fixeighted]

Yeah, I rebooted and that changed nothing, so repeatable every time.
As I say, for me it makes zero difference and is easily overcome, so if
it doesn't happen to everyone under Windows then I can only imagine it's
anomalous to my setup and of no great concern

[npg]

Please try reproducing the issue with patch 1.6.2 that we released today. I understand that it is not a big deal for you and I won't bother you further, unless this turns out to affect more users.

[fixeighted]

Oh it's no bother at all...thanks for looking into it. I'll try with the patch now and come back...

[fixeighted]

It's the same after the patch I'm afraid.

As a further test I thought to try it with a different Max version but cannot, as e.g my Max 21 has the older toolbar icons which throw up a QtWebengineprocess entry point error, meaning I have to shut Vantage down.
I thought installing Vantage intalled the plugin for all available Max versions...maybe I'm wrong.
Anyway, I thought there used to be a way to update the buttons manually through customise interface but that option seems to be gone now.

EDIT: I know now I didn't have the latest Vray for 21 installed. I'll do that and see if there is any difference with 21.

[fixeighted]

I updated Max 21 and tried the same thing and got the attached error. This doesn't happen with 22 (despite the glitch) but maybe there is some clue to the issue here....

[npg]

We changed how the scripts for the Vantage toolbar in 3ds Max are loaded with V-Ray update 2. The scripts are now in the Vantage folder (if it's 1.5.0 or newer) and any 3ds Max with V-Ray 5.2 should load them from there. An older V-Ray would use the scripts installed as part of V-Ray for 3ds Max itself (embedded in a vray dll).

The error from the screenshot is weird. Because the function in question is from Qt5WebEngineCore.dll (this is Chromium) which is in the Vantage folder and we make sure to make this the current folder when starting the web process, so it should find the dll. The only explanation that comes to mind currently is that maybe your antivirus quarantined this DLL.