Error Reading

[glorybound]

I have a serious issue with a model. The model is from late last year and all I did was open it. After 3 days I finally have it not crashing when I open the material editor, but now it renders black. I have turned/off and on everything, got it to render, deleting what I thought was causing the issue, and it still happening. I don't have a clue on how to fix this.
.

[19:14:50.604] Error : [DefMeshFile::getVoxel] -1: Error loading voxel 1 for mesh file "C:\Project Folder\Andy Albrecht\materiallibraries\AM_154_60_Tilia_04.vrme sh"

[19:14:50.608] Error : [VUtils::MeshVoxel::load] -1: Error loading mesh voxel

[19:14:50.615] Error : [readChannelData] -1: Error reading compressed length for mesh channel 6

[19:14:50.622] Error : [PStream::ReadBuffer] -1: Expected 4 bytes, got 0

[19:14:50.630] Error : [DefMeshFile::getVoxel] -1: Error loading voxel 1 for mesh file "C:\Project Folder\Andy Albrecht\materiallibraries\AM_154_60_Tilia_04.vrme sh"

[19:14:50.637] Error : [VUtils::MeshVoxel::load] -1: Error loading mesh voxel

[19:14:50.643] Error : [readChannelData] -1: Error reading compressed length for mesh channel 6

[19:14:50.651] Error : [PStream::ReadBuffer] -1: Expected 4 bytes, got 0

[19:15:09.334] Error : [DefMeshFile::getVoxel] -3: Error loading voxel 0 for mesh file "C:\Project Folder\Andy Albrecht\materiallibraries\AM_154_60_Tilia_04.vrme sh"

[19:15:09.337] Error : [VUtils::MeshVoxel::load] -3: Error loading mesh voxel

[19:15:09.338] Error : [readChannelData] -3: Error -3 uncompressing mesh channel 0

[19:15:09.422] Error : [DefMeshFile::getVoxel] -3: Error loading voxel 0 for mesh file "C:\Project Folder\Andy Albrecht\materiallibraries\AM_154_60_Tilia_04.vrme sh"

[19:15:09.459] Error : [VUtils::MeshVoxel::load] -3: Error loading mesh voxel

[19:15:09.459] Error : [readChannelData] -3: Error -3 uncompressing mesh channel 0

[19:15:10.499] Error : [DefMeshFile::getVoxel] -3: Error loading voxel 0 for mesh file "C:\Project Folder\Andy Albrecht\materiallibraries\AM_154_60_Tilia_04.vrme sh"

[19:15:10.544] Error : [VUtils::MeshVoxel::load] -3: Error loading mesh voxel

[19:15:10.548] Error : [readChannelData] -3: Error -3 uncompressing mesh channel 0

[19:15:24.508] Error : Error loading texture tile (29, 10) from level 1, file "C:\Project Folder\Andy Albrecht\materiallibraries\Stone_E_Diff_01_hires_s rgb.tx": 2: error reading file

[19:15:24.508] Error : Error loading texture tile (29, 2 from level 1, file "C:\Project Folder\Andy Albrecht\materiallibraries\Stone_E_Diff_01_hires_s rgb.tx": 2: error reading file

[19:15:29.367] Error : 23 error(s), 0 warning(s)

[19:15:29.547] Material editor renderer restored.

[fixeighted]

Honestly this will be just a stab in the dark which may/may not be relevant...

In those errors I notice that the 'tilia' keeps coming up, so it's a plant model file.
There are gaps in the spelling of '.vrmesh' and also in 'srgb', so it could be that they somehow got corrupted.

In that case you could try re-converting that particular model and textures and replacing them to see if it fixes the issue.
If not then it's hoping someone is in the Chaos office working weekends

[glorybound]

Merging crashes MAX. I got it to render by replacing a Choas stone texture, but I don't know if it'll crash with a new issue when I open the model again. Each time it has new errors; I changed almost everything.

[fixeighted]

That sounds odd, if the error also contained reference to the tree proxy...so no idea

[glorybound]

I think I got the patient stable now. The surgery is going well.

I remember back in my management days, we would charge, per hour, to upgrade a Revit model that comes back for more work. This client went silent last December and just now asked about his projects. After about a dozen ignored emails over several months, I stopped reaching out to him. Not a problem, this happens a lot, but it took me three days to troubleshoot his model. I can only assume it is because my software and plugins have been upgraded since then.

I work with some clients, doing their 3D work for their projects, and these guys seem to bill their clients for absolutely everything. The cool part is that they get away with it. Are these days gone for most of us, or does it only apply to large-budget projects? It seems we are now competing with $5 rendering, so to ask for a few hundred bucks, for extra work, is a stretch.

[glorybound]

I went into the project folder and saw some wacky jpegs. It looks like a lot of bitmaps got damaged.

[fixeighted]

Hehe yeah seen those before.

I hadn't realised it was someone else's model you were having issues with....normally the main culprit and as you discovered, also normally way more hassle
than they normally want to pay to fix
Anyway I'm glad you got to the bottom (or nearby) of it

You're sort of correct about the business in general I reckon....really lots of very cheap competition but other factors as well I think.
I personally am happy that my expenses are low and I have other sources of income...I am now, surprisingly, a product photographer!, having
never really picked up a camera before LOL...so I guess it's a case of 'adapt to survive'

Anecdotally, I just had a client say they looked for about 12 images (out of about 200)I did for them and couldn't find them and could I send them again.
I looked for them, discovered that in fact 90% of them were cancelled at the time (months ago).
I couldn't be bothered to argue or ask them to pay for them so I just fixed them and re-rendered.
People do expect way, way too much at times...

[glorybound]

It is all about quality vs. speed/quantity. How much value do you put on good taste? I always go back to photography. I know several people who have six-figure incomes taking photos. The key is having good taste and a good eye. Good customer service and communication are also priceless. We have to have clients that agree, or they won't know what is good or not. So the "how much for a rendering?" is getting old. This is always a red flag because they come from cheap China renderings. I have also noticed many people like me send their work overseas, so they are now doing the flat fee. They double what they are paying China, so it doesn't matter much. I don't know; it is different today than just a few years ago. Heck, my local Target is paying $27 an hour. Heck, $54 thousand a year to work 9-5 sounds pretty good sometimes.

Anyway, thank you for the conversation, onward and upward!

You should have charged. If someone calls and wants a change, I take myself out of the equation and think of how much I would pay someone else to do it. Time = Money, and sometimes I forget that. Suppose I had to pay someone $500 to do something. The Money isn't coming out of my pocket; that is a terrible business.