VIZ 2006 - maps not rendering [updated - bug in max/viz]

[Marshall_Craft]

Hey guys/gals, I stumbled into this thread yesterday after experiencing the same problem (with VIZ 2006 and Vray 1.47xx.) While I'm waiting for Chaosgroup to send me build 1.46, I was wondering whether it was worth my time to go ahead and calculate my IR maps and Light Caches for a short animation I'm working on, and then simply render the final images using those saved files once I receive the older version. Are the files backward compatible like that or would I be wasting my time? And just to throw in my two cents, I had no idea this problem existed either before purchasing the software, but I didn't bother to do any real research, and I've been extremely impressed how quickly Vray (or Vlado I guess) seems to respond and correct glitches, even if it's not their software that's causing them.

- Alex

[s0real]

this is a bit annoying though.
my IT dept are on about cancellnig the viz subscriptions at our office because 2006 was paid for and unused because of the vray issue...and who's to know wether this issue will be resolved with the next viz release?!

hopefully this issue doesn't mean that vray will become a max only plugin...

it would be nice to get some confirmation that it wont...

[Marshall_Craft]

Doesn't MAX cost more than VIZ? maybe this is just a soft-sell technique by autodesk to motivate customers to "upgrade" to MAX (New and improved! AND it works with Vray!!!) oh, well.

- Alex

[Marshall_Craft]

Hey, I know this isn't a real fix, but I noticed that only one of my maps wasn't being rendered correctly. I renamed the bitmap I was using and then reassociated the material to that new bitmap, and I haven't had any problems since (fingers crossed of course.) Are others having problems with all of their maps or just specific ones? Maybe there's a type of image file that induces the problem.

- Alex

[leotchest]

there are a lot of threads on various forums with a whole bunch of bitmap problems related to Viz 2006 & Vray. Also, its not a Viz only problem. If you install the 7.5 'update' to Max you will also be buggered as far as Vray is concerned (wierd things will happen to your UVW mapping, and the Autodesk patch apparently doesnt fix this). Also, whose to say that Max 8 wont make things even worse ? To me it seems like a game of roulette at the moment. I have decided to upgrade from Viz to Max for various reasons, though this does still not fix the problem with Vray. I want to use 7.5 because of the enhanced tools but I cant do this if I want to use Vray. I wonder if Brazil has all these problems with Max/Viz ?

[vlado]

I wonder if Brazil has all these problems with Max/Viz ?

It would be best to ask its developers. However, considering the problems max 7.5 had with finalRender initially, I don't think the problems are restricted to V-Ray only.

Best regards,
Vlado

[vizage]

@ leotchest

-yes, that´s a troubleshooting -upgrade from the viz to the max...but, the MAX is more than twice more expensive... Well, if you haven´t problem with money, you´ll haven´t problems with any renderer. I think.
________

So, it´s hell truth, that Service pack no.1 doesn´t solve problems with V-ray, it seems, they doesn´t solve more problems, that they had. Autodesk have the same manners like the Microsoft... How they can sell unfinished program? Autodesk had completly rebuild kernel of the Autodesk VIZ 2006 in comparison with Autodesk VIZ 4, but without success.
Well, have a nerve.

[leotchest]

Cross-grading from Viz to Max is actually pretty good value - cost me about $1650US & you get to transfer your subscription. Problem is, as far as Autodesk is concerned there is no problem with their software. They cannot deal with the problems that arise solely due to third party plug-ins. Its up to the designer of the plug-in to make sure their plug-in works. Im no apologist for Autodesk though - they have a lot of work to do to make Max & Viz more robust - but that is a seperate issue. Plugins are not within their remit. For instance, when they introduced Mental Ray, it was not their problem that RPC plugins were not compatible with Mental Ray. Archvision, however, took the bull by the horns, and are addressing this issue with an updated plugin.

[czoog]

Wait a minute, so cross grading to Max 7.5 with Viz extensions installed does NOT solve the problem!?! Damn, I just got apporoval to buy te crossgrade to solve this very issue and so I can finally dump Viz2005. I guess we will have to wait see if Max 8 has the problem or if vray can work around it.

[Da_elf]

i dont believe he said that it didnt fix the problem because it should fix the problem. the missing map file is not present in max. opps. you meant in 7.5 i never did that upgrade. never seemed usefull

[leotchest]

I think the problem with Max 7.5 is UVW distortions. What I have read on the threads makes me think that installing 7.5 is a major problem if you are using Vray. Only option is to stick with 7.1 ?

[czoog]

hmmm.... Maybe I'll will download the demo to see for sure

The problem for us is we have to use either Max 7.5 (with viz stuff installed) or Viz2006 or Viz2005 because these versions have an enhancement to the DWG file link that allows it to read the X-data in the DWG files exported by our primary modeling app (Autodesk Revit). It converts "revit materials" into architectural materials in Viz/Max which I then convert into Vray Materials. The nice thing about this all the materials are assigned to all the proper objects, and it's easy to edit the materials once they are imported.

So hopefully something can be worked out or like many other Viz users, I'll be SOL.

Maybe the revit to vray stand alone will help.

[vlado]

I think the problem with Max 7.5 is UVW distortions. What I have read on the threads makes me think that installing 7.5 is a major problem if you are using Vray. Only option is to stick with 7.1 ?

As far as I know, Autodesk released a hotfix patch that resolves this issue. With this patch, we are not aware of any other 7.5-specific issues.

Best regards,
Vlado

[leotchest]

The Aug 23 Post: "Rendering destroys uvw unwrapping".........seemed to suggest the UVW map problem has not been solved by Autodesks patch ??

[vlado]

The Aug 23 Post: "Rendering destroys uvw unwrapping".........seemed to suggest the UVW map problem has not been solved by Autodesks patch ??

If you read the whole thread, you will notice people saying that 7.5 did this randomly even without V-Ray.

Best regards,
Vlado