V-Ray 3.6 Freeze when trying to render

[JonasNöll]

Somehow recently I have a problem that if I use V-Ray 3.6 / 3ds Max 2018 an try to render my Max freezes like 2 minutes until the Framebuffer finally opens. And then everything is like it is supposed to. That's always the first time I open 3ds Max and try to render the scene. After one freeze it is fine until I close Max and reopen again.
I didn't have this issue before, just started to come last week...

[JonasNöll]

Just installed latest LicenseServer, didn't change anything...
- No issue with V-Ray 5 / 3dsMax 2021
- No issue with V-Ray Next / 3ds Max 2020
just V-Ray 3.6 / 3ds Max 2018

The freeze always occurs at this step: "Preparing direct light manager..." when rendering single frame. Or when just trying to open the VFB (Right Click -> Quad Menue -> VRay VFB) to start an interactive rendering

[nikoleta.garkova]

Hi Jonas,

Would it be possible to try and reset the 3ds max settings to their defaults and see if that helps fix the issue?

• Close any running 3ds Max sessions.
• Navigate to the following path:
  C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\
• Open the folder for the current installation: i.e. 2018 - 64bit.
• Rename the ENU folder to ENU_old.

With the launch of 3ds Max, a new ENU folder will be created automatically.

If this doesn't help, would it be possible to try and recall if you've made any recent hardware/software changes? If you could also forward a recording of the problem, we'd really appreciate this. Thanks!

[JonasNöll]

Hi,

deleting the ENU folder didn't really fix the issue, it still persists unfortunately.
Recent software changes were only that I installed a license for Corona, I think the timing could be the same as when those freezes started to happen.
No changes in Hardware.

Sent you a PM with the recordings

[JonasNöll]

Hi, is there anything else I can try?

So far I:
- Updated license server to latest version
- Uninstalled and Reinstalled V-Ray
- Deleted ENU folder

All with no result.

[nikoleta.garkova]

Hi Jonas, thanks for the info.

Does the same issue happen with an empty scene? Can you also try to render with Standalone? You can do so either through the command line or if you right-click somewhere in your scene, select .vrscene exporter and click on Export and Render. Please do share what happens then. It could also be related to discrepancies between plugins, so maybe try removing Corona and any additional 3rd party plugins - just so we can narrow down where the issue lies.

[JonasNöll]

- Empty Scene:
Deleted my maxstart.max and reopened with empty scene. Then I need to swtich from Scanline to V-Ray. Switch is no problem but then a freeze again to open the VFB or render.

- Using .vrscene exporter
This way the rendering seems to start right away without any freeze. But then once the rendering finished I right click and open VFB or press F9 it freezes again for a long time.

- Uninstalling Corona and other 3rd party plugins
Uninstalled Corona Renderer with no effect. That was the only new plugin, some few other plugins and V-Ray version has been installed for long time already with no issues.

[nikoleta.garkova]

Thanks for the input! If it's starting right away on Standalone, then the issue probably isn't related to licenses at all. Would it be possible to generate a dump file (once it freezes) so we can have a look? Please check the following article on How to Create Dump Files and either attach it here or forward it to support@chaosgroup.com (just mention the thread in the email).

[JonasNöll]

Hi, alright I did that but somehow it is not creating a minidump but a normal DMP file. This file is around 5 GB in size. Is that the file that you need? Then I will find a way to upload it somewhere

[JonasNöll]

Hi, after zipping the file it is 600MB, I uploaded it and sent a link to Chaosgroup support!

[nikoleta.garkova]

Thanks Jonas, we'll review and will get back to you.