Animated proxy and chãos scatter problems

[carlos_couto]

Hello,

I am experiencing two separate animation-related issues with V-Ray Proxy and Chaos Scatter in 3ds Max 2025.

System:

• Autodesk 3ds Max 2025
• V-Ray 7
• Chaos Scatter
• Latest available build installed through Chaos Installer

Issue 1 – V-Ray Proxy does not respect Loop or Ping-Pong playback

I have an animated V-Ray Proxy which plays correctly when used as a standalone proxy object.

However, the playback modes do not work correctly:

• Loop does not behave as expected.
• Ping-Pong does not work.
• The animation does not reverse at the end of the range as expected.

Changing the playback mode does not produce the expected result, even when testing the proxy completely outside Chaos Scatter.

I also tested the Alembic Offset option. When enabling or changing Alembic Offset, 3ds Max becomes extremely slow or appears to freeze/hang.

This issue is reproducible without Chaos Scatter, so it appears to be related to V-Ray Proxy animation playback itself.

Issue 2 – Animated V-Ray Proxy becomes static inside Chaos Scatter

The same animated proxy that plays correctly as a standalone object loses its animation completely when used as a model inside Chaos Scatter.

For testing, I am currently using only four very simple animated boxes, so this is not related to scene complexity or a large number of instances.

Test:

1. Create/import an animated V-Ray Proxy.
2. Confirm that the proxy animation plays when the proxy is placed directly in the scene.
3. Add that same proxy as a model in Chaos Scatter.
4. Scatter only a few instances.
5. Scrub or play the timeline.

Result:
The scattered instances remain static and do not reproduce the original proxy animation.

Expected result:
The scattered instances should reproduce the animation contained in the source V-Ray Proxy. Even if all instances use the same animation timing, the original animation should still be evaluated.

These appear to be two separate issues:

1. V-Ray Proxy playback modes such as Loop and Ping-Pong are not working correctly.
2. Chaos Scatter is not evaluating the animation of the V-Ray Proxy at all.

I have reproduced this with a very simple test scene using only a few animated objects, so the issue does not appear to be related to performance or scene size.

Could you please confirm:

• Whether these are known issues in 3ds Max 2025 / the current V-Ray 7 build.
• Whether there is a workaround.
• Whether animated V-Ray Proxies are currently fully supported inside Chaos Scatter.
• Whether Alembic animation playback or Alembic Offset currently has any known limitations or regressions.

I can provide a minimal test scene and animated proxy files if required.

Thank you.

[hermit.crab]

Make sure you’re using the “Export all selected objects in a single file” option (check screenshot) when exporting the .vrmesh; otherwise, when saving to separate files, the animation will not be stored within the VRayProxy (because of object space). If “Automatically create proxies” is active, we just animate the VRayProxy node itself.

It sounds to me like both issues are caused by this.