3DS Max 2013 / Vray / Black Materials in Viewport (Please Help!)

[jonm4y]

Hey fellow 3DS users,

I am currently using the following book to improve my Vray Skills:
Architectural Rendering with 3DS Max and Vray by Markus Kuhlo and Enrico Eggert
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Architectural-Rendering-V-Ray-Photorealistic-Visualization/dp/0240814770/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352208207&sr=1-1

To clarify, I am using official versions of
3DS Max 2013 and Vray 2.3
and use an NVidia GeForce GTX 680

Basically when I apply some materials from my material editor to an object they appear black.
Looking around, this is a fairly common issue, but everyone seems to have an answer that helps other people, but nothing is working for me

So far I have tried the following:
- Using Different drivers: Open GL, Direct 3D and Nitrous
- Turning scene lights on an off.
- Using default lights with <2 lights>
- Turning Smooth Highlights on and off
- Shortcut ‘6’ (recommended by someone)
- Shortcut ‘Ctrl + I’ (recommended by someone)
- Shaded materials without maps, Shaded material with maps, Realistic materials without maps, Realistic materials with maps
- Textures Box (enabled)
- Viewcube > Configure > Improve Quality Progressively on and off
- Re-install 3DS Max 2013
- Environment Lights on and off
- Environment light white and black
- Add an additional Vray light to the scene to try and light the black material
- View options: Shaded / Edge face / Realistic

Oh...and I have also tried multiple renderer settings.
Currently set to:*
Production: V-ray Adv 2.30.01
Material Editor: V-ray Adv 2.30.01
Activeshade: V-ray RT 2.30.02

All have tried, all have failed!

Anyone have any idea what is going on? Feel free to ask questions

Please Help.

[cheerioboy]

"Show shaded material in viewport"
Maybe you need to tick this in the materials?

[jonm4y]

Thank you for your advice 'cheerioboy', but Im afraid I have already applied the 'Show material in viewport'. Any other suggestions?

[pixelplume]

what material types don't show up? could be incompatible with Vray.....

[jonm4y]

Thank you for your question Sean.

Some of the materials that don't show up are basic V-Ray materials which I am creating using a Vray Material and then applying a bitmap. (.jpg format)
In the scene attached, you can see that in the render, the material actually works fine on the floor, the window frames and the ceiling, but in the viewports im in the dark (literally!)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[mario74]

i had exact the same here with same configuration SW&HW

it happens with "big" tiff's almost always, BUT the thing is you have to turn on in MAX is "store with UNC path" AND grab texture from this path like: 192.168.0.50/xxx

this worked for me also using activeshade with RT in viewport


edit reminds me: if you dont have network - standalone machine, map this drive in windows to: \\127.0.0.1\xxx

[glorybound]

do they show in the material editor? Do they render fine? Is your camera clipping on?

[jonm4y]

Hey glorybound,

Much Appreciated. The materials show fine in the material editor, they render fine but as you can see in my viewport, some materials are pitch black

i havent dealt with camera clipping? what would that involve?

Thanks again,

jonm4y

[jonm4y]

Thank you for your post mario74

Im not sure if the image size file is too big as they are textures supplied with the cd that comes with the book i am using. the floor file for example is this file in .jpg format.



The store with UNC path option you mentioned I'm afraid is over my head. Would it be possible to explain this in a little more detail?

Kind Regards,

jonm4y

[cheerioboy]

Oh, maybe check the texture paths in asset tracking. (manage/asset tracking) - maybe there's some weirdness in there, although usually for me it's that the textures appear in the viewport but don't render..
Place the textures in a folder off the CD and direct the asset tracking to reference them from there.

?

[jonm4y]

Thanks again 'cheerioboy'.

Unfortunately I looked into this yesterday and all material status’ in the scene are listed as ‘ok’. So i'm afraid that didn't resolve the issue.

As for the cd files, as soon i started the book, the first thing I did was copy all the files into a new folder. There are 6 projects in total. The first three worked fine, but then this black issue appeared and the last 3 chapters really struggled to give me any visuals i was worried that ive maybe hit a shortcut by accident called 'pitch black mode' or something but i cant seem to fix it.

im following the instructions in the book to produce the projects and the renders come out beautifully. i just wish i could see how i did them. i feel like the Stevie Wonder of 3D visualisations when i hit that render button!

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated

jonm4y

[glorybound]

Viewport Configuration - Viewport Clipping

Hey glorybound,

Much Appreciated. The materials show fine in the material editor, they render fine but as you can see in my viewport, some materials are pitch black

i havent dealt with camera clipping? what would that involve?

Thanks again,

jonm4y

[jonm4y]

Hi glorybound...

sorry for the delay, was waiting for my current model to finish rendering.



I tried the 'Viewport Clipping' option on and off for my current project, but as usual it made no difference
See attached image.

Thanks again, really appreciate your efforts in trying to help me resolve this.

jonm4y

[mario74]

i am quite sure, this is same problem as i had, i try to explain - i have german version here - i am also german version, btw

go in MAX to settings > files: change path to UNC-path (UNC is with IP - thats why you need a IP in front of your texture-file) - it will not work in activeshade RT if you have your file on harddisk D: or E: !!

map your path in windows (you have to give access before, so you MUST reach this folder over network! and give SYSTEM access, otherwise it will be dark again) where you store your textures with command "NET USE" - you will find with google how it works - and than you will have a full UNC-path to your textures

for example: net use T: \\127.0.0.1\textures /persistent:yes

this path will give you full access to UNC-path on a single machine, but the important thing is: you have to grab textures from device T: than!! the path will resolve the UNC to \\127.0.0.1\textures\

it solved my problem, so let me know if you need more information!

edit: screenshot on my laptop:

[samuel_bubat]

Just a wild guess.. but could it be the normals are flipped on these objects ?