[solved] Corona is reverting to 3ds Max Classic frame buffer

Hi all -

I tried rendering a small greyscale image today. Set up my Corona sun, environment and a tiny lightmix. Fired up interactive rendering and got the Corona frame buffer going and all looked well. I then wanted to do a render, which for something small, I wouldn’t choose a render output directory - but now it pushed out an error of “Error Creating File Output”. I thought it was odd, but I just specified a directory quick so it could save my cxr, and hit render again. And this is where it got really weird! It opened up the classic 3ds Max frame buffer and started rendering my Corona image in that. It looked okay, but no access to the lightmix. I let the render finish, and noticed that it also started de-noising. Is this a feature where I need to specify Corona to use its own native frame buffer - maybe a setting I’m missing? I’ve been using Corona for a while now and I have never seen this sort of behavior before. Please help if you can.




Hi,
Go to render setup>system>system settings and look what’s set in VFB settings>type. Should be Corona VFB and not native max VFB.

AHA! Romullus - I thank you! I just shared this little nugget with my team in case anyone ever runs into this problem again.

You’re welcome!

Hi, Sorry to dig up this oldie, but since I’ve upgraded to Corona 9 (Running Max 2021.2), whenever I render it opens in the native max frame buffer. Any ideas as to where else I could look?

On my other machine, the file works just fine (and this is happening across all of my files).

Many thanks in advance!

Have you tried the solution suggested by Romullus? (Render Setup > System > System Settings > make sure you have the Corona frame buffer selected there)

Hi Maru,

You know, I did that straight away and noticed it was on Corona (not native) but still showed the native frame buffer. After I restarted max AFTER checking that setting, it all of a sudden worked as it should again. Strange, I did nothing but look at that setting and close that window and then it was fine.

That said, who knows!

Thank you kindly for your prompt attention. :smiley:

Possibly there was some issue with the config file that Corona is using to store those system settings. It is stored in C:\Users\Marcin\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2022 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\plugcfg\corona as one of the SysteSettings conf files.
You can manually edit the file (finding out which one may be tricky though, so it probably makes sense to update all of them) and make sure the VFB is set to “wx” like this:
Int vfb.type = wx

It is also safe to remove all conf files in that folder (you will lose any custom system settings though). Once you restart 3ds Max and set Corona as the renderer, a new conf file will be generated.

Title: Corona 15 Hotfix 1 randomly switches back to the 3ds Max VFB instead of Corona VFB 2.0

Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing a very strange issue that I’ve never had before, and it only started after updating to Corona 15 Hotfix 1.

Randomly, when I start a render, Corona stops using the Corona VFB 2.0 and instead opens the original 3ds Max Frame Buffer (the legacy Rendered Frame Window). Once this happens, the Corona VFB 2.0 completely disappears.

I’ve already tried all the solutions suggested in previous threads, including:

  • Resetting the Corona VFB settings.
  • Deleting the Corona user configuration files from the user folder.
  • Resetting 3ds Max preferences.
  • Verifying that Corona VFB is selected in the Render Setup.

The only thing that temporarily fixed the problem was performing a complete reinstall of both Corona and 3ds Max. However, after a few renders, the issue came back again.

This behavior is completely random. Sometimes everything works normally, and then suddenly Corona starts rendering into the standard 3ds Max frame buffer again.

Has anyone experienced this with Corona 15 Hotfix 1?

Is there a known bug or another configuration file that could be causing this behavior?

I’m using:

  • 3ds Max: (2020)
  • Corona Renderer: 15 Hotfix 1
  • Windows: (10)

I’ve attached a screenshot showing the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!