I am using the last version of Vray (on OSX) and I noticed the same problem for the version before:
after importing/modeling some new components into the scene, ALL the materials are loosing the additional proprieties as the Reflection layer (Diffuse is the only one that it stays).
Been discussed before, you can see the latest thread here: http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?63554-Losing-material-layers
This is a bug in the recent betas. No real solution. Some things I’ve found - copying geometry with materials and saving components will save the materials when opeing in SU without vray installed. Also, a lot of the older materials do not come in correctly to the current vfsu (1.49.01)
I have found that every time I open a file the materials from that file deletes the reflection layer and any additional material information from the model I am currently working on.
An easy way to fix this is to open a backup file of the model you are working on after opening or importing other models, this usually loads the material information back into your current working drawing. I don’t have Vray on my laptop computer so when I am working on a model at home I use this method to reload the materials back in to the model when I am working on my desktop computer in the office.
I don´t know if something new but I have found this! :
If I am working only on one model these is no problem.
The bug happens when I open in Skt a second model (usually I need to open the second model because I want to copy and paste some geometry from one model to the other)
BUT
instead of opening the second model, I keep only one model opened and I “import” into it the new geometries. It looks like that all the materials are just fine…
Yes this is exactly the problem, but if your materials do get messed up then simply keep open the file you are working on but also open then close a backup file of the same model, this will fix the materials on your original file.
I have recently started experiencing this. Most notably are emissive, reflection, and bump layers, which are lost. The patterns of my work does resemble some of you guys, save 2 version and then work on both. If 1 file has several materials losing attributes (layers), I’ll copy paste the geometries with the complete layers into the other one.
Edit - here’s the list of materials that lost their attributes:
1. Emissive, lost emissive layer
2. Imported vismat, lost most of layers (fresnel, texbitmap, bump)
3. 2sided material, the main one changed into standard material