Force Texture Flush

[selavfx]

Hi,
we are heavily relying on .tx-files for our assets and sometimes we need to override/delete existing files which are currently used in certain maya-scenes.
While trying to override and/or deleting those files, Windows doesn't allow to override them, saying that the files are currently in use.
Coming from Arnold there was a button to flush all the textures which are used by the renderer to release them from being "blocked" by the render engine in maya.

Is there an option in Vray or a Script available which we could use to force the unloading of the textures from memory ?
Thanks in advance!

[yolov]

V-Ray should release the files when the rendering is done, unless you're using the option to cache textures between renders (it's in the render settings > override > rendering).

[selavfx]

Hey yolov,
thank you for your answer.

We are not using the cache option, but the files are still blocked and we are not able to delete/override them until we close Maya completely and reopen it again (which is annoying with huge scenes).
So we're assuming that either Vray or Maya itself aren't releasing the files.
We also tried the "clear bitmap cache" button with no success, but then again: we're not using the cache option anyway.

So it would be great if there is a way to actively force the release of the files when needed. Doesn't have to be a fancy GUI-Button, a script is fine for us.
Thanks.

[yolov]

What Maya and V-Ray version are you on? I remember that we did make something to improve that in the past, I just don't remember when exactly.

[selavfx]

Hey!
Hm, this is Maya 2016 Ext1 Sp6 and Vray 3.40.04.

[yolov]

We did make some improvements that should be part of 3.52. You could try the new version, but just keep in mind that our tests at the time showed that beside vray, Maya also keeps open file handles to the textures - namely when Maya renders its own texture preview.