System freezes/locks up at render end

[OPEN_RANGE]

Thank you all for your ongoing help. I definitely need it.

Dave - I have 790 gig free space on new disk drive that I am saving to. I have not checked that VFB History Auto save and I will look at that for sure. Truth is I use VFB history but was unaware of auto save option. maybe it's on.

I want to get 2016 installed. The problem is I have a current scene - almost completed except for client tweaks to furnishings - established in 2017 and another almost complete except for client tweaks to exterior materials in 2018 (thats the one that is causing the freeze ups). Can I somehow take my scenes from 2017 and 2018 backwards to 2016?

Whats very odd is how the autobak has stopped working . it just doesn't even try to autobak.not sure but that seems like a strong coincidence and I suspect it's somehow related or symptomatic of the underlying insanely frustrating problem.

One other thing that I have just done is to delete/un-install a script I used - Populate Terrain.

Still testing but that is very time consuming due to needing to render the entire scene at 3K to see if problem still exists and then , when it freezes, re-start and etc.

Autobak is now working on simple scene with just a couple of objects

[Alex_M]

Yes, you can save your scenes 3 versions back. So if using 2018, you can save all the way back to 2015. In the save dialog there's a dropdown menu under the file name field. Click it and choose 3ds max 2016 before saving the file.

As for the autoback issue - no idea what could cause this. Maybe because the file is corrupted and somehow it doesn't work with it anymore.

[Syclone1]

For saving backwards you should be able to open your 2018 file and do a 'save as' and there is a drop down box [save as type] at the bottom where you should be able to save it back to 2017, 2016 and 2015.

[OPEN_RANGE]

OK I was able to figure out the save backwards. Simple and obvious I'm just so flustered I am grabbing at straws.

More testing and.....I may have found the super obvious self inflicted problem. too early to tell but things are working better. Autobak is working again.

I'm going to own up to this in advance because I'm pretty sure I frickin suck. I used that Populate Terrain in the older 2015 version of the scene and it carried into the new file I'm revising in 2018. I almost never use scripts and very few Plug -ins.

I collapsed the little Populate Terrain object, which had a Forest Pack scattered on it, and that may have done it. Don't know why it worked OK for days and then suddenly whamo ...not.

Too early to be sure but cautiously optimistic. I'm very sorry to have dragged you all into this stupid rabbit hole that I dug. Sincere apologies.

[Syclone1]

No matter what the cause Im just glad you were able to nail down what is wrong and resolve the issue. Ive made countless posts that ended up with me as the problem lol but only a small percentage get posted as Im in the habbit of writing the post out and then not hitting submit till I take a couple more cracks at the problem and if I fix it then I delete the post lol. No need to apologize as someone else that is using the same or similar setup may run into problems and be able to fix theirs faster because of what you posted here. There is usually a brighter side to most things.

Cheers!

[OPEN_RANGE]

well I spoke to soon. worked away effectively for an hour or two. got it just as it needed to be. Now back to computer freeze up on render end. using progressive or buckets, still freezes whole system on render end.

[Syclone1]

have you tried reverting back to a 3.5x version of V-Ray? Ive read another thread that someone was having an issue and at render end it would hang and reverted back and got his project rendered.

[OPEN_RANGE]

haven't tried that yet but thanks for the heads up. I will add that to my list of trouble shooting ideas for sure.

I installed and I'm now the new nvidia drive and Direct3D 11 in both 2017 and 2018.

I just dropped back and finalized a different project that I had started and was in 2017 with vray 3.5. I didn't have to do much but it all worked fine including the bucket render at 3K. I'm thinking to save my problematic 2018 project as a 2017 and try it with that.

Thank you for your ongoing help!

[Syclone1]

Im tired and ready to go home and start my vacation lol. the thread mentioned is actually below this one at the moment https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...-128-gb-memory

Hope it gets working for you, see you in a week or so. Im on Alcoholidays

[OPEN_RANGE]

Still having full system freeze at render end. I gues it wasn't the Populate Terrain causing the trouble. Dang. Some more info from the very helpful trouble shooting suggestions above ( thanks to all).

I had to drop back to another project that was in 2017 w/ vray 3.5, on same computer. An interior that needed higher quality render settings. It renders fine at 4K.

I saved the problem scene from 2018 vray 3.6 as a 2017 and started working with it in 2017 vray 3.5. Still freezes system at render end. I tried, as suggested, rendering as .vrmg. It does save the file even though system freezes, but file is 0 KB so no help there.

i put plain vray override material on everything. That renders and saves without freeze. Started excluding stuff from override material. Starting with forest pack objects.
Removed override from mulch and flowers. Rendered and saved ok.
Removed override from meadow grass. Freeze up at render end.
Put override back on meadow grass. Remove override from trees. Rendered and saved ok. Hey, now maybe getting somewhere?
Removed override from vray proxy shrubs (from original/previously created version of scene. before I started using FP). Freeze up at render end.
Put,override back on proxies and render as before with scene materials on mulch, flowers, trees only. Previously rendered and saved ok like this. Freeze up. Sheeeesh.

Each one of those freeze ups required system re- start. Still thinking demonic possession but cannot find exorcist on short notice. Ghost Busters not answering phone or replying to voice mail.

I'm now going to try again merging pieces and parts into blank scene and rendering each successive add in. Last time I had similar experience. What seemingly renders fine once, doesn't render find at later attempt. Worth trying again more carefully I think.

Long write up, but kind of helpful to me as a review of steps taken.

I've got the modeling, materials, lighting and everything all done the way I want and the way the client wants.I hate the idea of re doing the whole thing from scratch. It was supposed to be a simple revision of an older project. Probably done originally in 2014 or 2015. I'll probably spend more time trouble shooting than just having re done from scratch.

[Alex_M]

Did you try sending the scene to Chaos? They've been very helpful on several occasions with scenes that didn't want to render.

[OPEN_RANGE]

Hi Alex. I decided to do,all I could before sending it to chaos. It's so great that they are willing to do that. Sets the bar for support and commitment to users.

I'm making very good progress on getting it to work by carefully merging into new scene peice(s) at a time. I don't want to jinx myself but I think I just about have it fixed.

Problem was with Forest Pack objects. At this point I think it was something I did in the creation of Forest Pack stuff. The problem was not with Max2018/ vray 3.6 or 2017/ vray 3.5. Problem was not with the Forest Pack plug in. Problem was with my implementation of FP, I think. Not sure what or how but something got out of whack. I am recreating a couple of FP objects, most of the FP stuff was OK.

The fact that this was concurrent with my using 2018/vray 3.6 for the first time plus the problems with the nvidia driver caused me to follow some erroneous efforts.

I'll add another post when, hopefully, I have this solved.

Your trouble shooting suggestions were very helpful and thanks again for your help!