Autodesk Materail

[M.Max]

No errors on load, no.
However, if i load any of the multi-sub material present in the scene in the material editor, any of the sub-materials, regardless of class (i.e. type) are without an UI, and only a box with that message in it.
See attached.

I think it is something releated to old mental ray shaders
I think bobby have done the steps mentioned here:
https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...ction-features
personally,I did download the files provided by fixeighted in the link above too and I can see Autodesk shaders in 3Ds Max 2021.2 .
VRay couldn't convert them tho .
I hope that help.

[^Lele^]

I have everything i can installed for my max 2021, i doubt it has anything to do with missing material libraries, certainly, not the 2012 ones as reported by the dialog.
Those, i do not have, but i can't see how anyone would want to have a max 2012 installation hanging around nine years later to get an import to work.
It has to be something else, and those are AD material classes, not strictly mR specific, and do not come up with a mR related error either.

Querying what is there, the materials are of the right class (autodeskMaterial) but the properties which should define them are either empty, or undefined.

I'm stumped, will ask.

[M.Max]

I have everything i can installed for my max 2021, i doubt it has anything to do with missing material libraries, certainly, not the 2012 ones as reported by the dialog.
Those, i do not have, but i can't see how anyone would want to have a max 2012 installation hanging around nine years later to get an import to work.
It has to be something else, and those are AD material classes, not strictly mR specific, and do not come up with a mR related error either.

Querying what is there, the materials are of the right class (autodeskMaterial) but the properties which should define them are either empty, or undefined.

I'm stumped, will ask.

yeah, maybe it is not the same issue, but I would give that a try and see if Max will see them with that method.
Max works in a mysterious way sometimes

[^Lele^]

I have read up a bit, and i think i may be on to something.
Installing max in any folder other than the default one forces some changes which seem to break things.
It helped us find seriously obscure bugs in our installer, but it seems to be an endless stream of grief.
In this case, while the installer claims the material libraries are all installed, i am missing some files from the disks, *any* disk.

I'm biting the bullet, and reinstalling in the default folder.

EDIT: reinstalling into c:\program files\ made it all work. phew.

[^Lele^]

In my case, the AD scene converter works just fine: it turns them into physical materials, it preserves the textures, v-ray renders it (should you choose not to convert them to vrayMtl.).
The whole process took around 8 seconds on my lazy 1900x.

Anything specific that doesn't get converted? I can't find any, but may be missing something.
Here's the converted file.

[M.Max]

In my case, the AD scene converter works just fine: it turns them into physical materials, it preserves the textures, v-ray renders it (should you choose not to convert them to vrayMtl.).
The whole process took around 8 seconds on my lazy 1900x.

Anything specific that doesn't get converted? I can't find any, but may be missing something.
Here's the converted file.

I've just tested this and I can confirm it is working (Y)
I had to change the "current preset" under the converter to "ART" - not sure if it is the default or I've changed it to " RemoveInvalidLegacyElements" in the past- , so I can convert them to Physical Materials first.
thank you for looking into this .

[^Lele^]

I've just tested this and I can confirm it is working (Y)
I had to change the "current preset" under the converter to "ART" - not sure if it is the default or I've changed it to " RemoveInvalidLegacyElements" in the past- , so I can convert them to Physical Materials first.
thank you for looking into this .

Yes, exactly: the one trick to keep in mind is to select the "ART" preset.

Now, i do understand that it would be much better to have all this integrated in the one scene converter, but i baulk at the amount, and kind, of work to be done.

The AD materials take liberties in the name of user experience which cannot be translated by third parties (take, f.e., the "number of glass panels" in a glass material. The list is big.), so it would require one of two things: manual reverse engineering, or the dropping of the feature entirely (it's not good practice to translate a word from a language into nonsense. one either knows what it means, or one doesn't.).
That AD should do the conversion as they know is best is lucky for us all, in this case.

As such, I have voted it down, but of course that doesn't mean it won't happen, nor that it won't be me writing it. ^^
Just, it's difficult to think of allocating such a sizeable amount of work to duplicate what is already a non-avoidable tool in any max installation, especially if the work it requires from a user is three clicks.

[glorybound]

I haven't tried "ART", which isn't initiative. Intuitively, someone would select VRAY. So, "ART" and then run the V-Ray convertor? I'll give that a try next time.

[^Lele^]

I haven't tried "ART", which isn't initiative. Intuitively, someone would select VRAY. So, "ART" and then run the V-Ray convertor? I'll give that a try next time.

It was linked as an Autodesk solution in post number 7.
Notice the second conversion from physical material is entirely optional, as we can render those (you'll notice immediately if you have the material editor open.), but is of course suggested, and fairly quick even for thousands of shaders.