Hello,
It’s been a problem since the release of 3ds max 2017, so I’ve been stuck with 2016 as everything is fine with it (regarding this problem of course 
), it’s very difficult to select a light (only Vray lights, not 3ds Max ones) in a viewport when there’s any other geometry behind it.
You have to click many times in place to finaly get to the light, as if the light was the last object behind everything else. Of course it’s a little less annoying in wireframe mode, but it’s still pretty much unusable in any normal condition.
I’m perfectly aware that I could use a selection filter, however when quickly working on a scene and multitasking, it’s not an ideal solution. It’s working fine in 2016, so what has changed since 2017 ? It’s the same in 2018 and 2019.
Thanks !
Bumping this thread, if you don’t mind
My solution is SHIFT + G, it hides all the geometry, then if you have too much cameras to select the lights, I do SHIFT + C, or too much shapes SHIFT + S, so if I want to quickly select without using selection filters I use these shortcuts:
SHIFT + G : Hide unhide Geometry
SHIFT + C : Hide unhide Cameras
SHIFT + S : Hide unhide Shapes
SHIFT + L : Hide unhide Lights
Thanks Vitzioen, very helpful shortcuts !
However I really feel it’s a bug, because it appeared in 3ds max 2017 and the default 3ds lights do not display this behavior, the depth ordering of objects is perfectly consistent, as it should be. I can’t think of any reason whatsoever for putting all lights behind all other objects !
Selecting in 3dsmax has only gotten worse over the years. I don’t know if the lightselect problem is one that Max created or something that should be checked by the Chaosgroup guys. As always we adapt untill there are better solutions, hence the shortcuts
Of course !
I chose to stick with 3ds max 2016 as a workaround, but It could be great to evolve.
I’d simply like to have the official stance on this, maybe it could be corrected and simply has been overlooked ?
Dome Lights always seem to be a pain to click on. I`m looking at one in my camera viewport right now and it just sits there refusing to be selected, taunting me and giggling.
One more vote for this. It seems like only Vray lights exhibit this behavior.
Hi all,
Yes, this is a known issue and we will try to fix it. Will post here when we have any news!
V-Ray Lights & Physical camera selection is improved for the next official release.
Hi Tashko,
any chance this fix will work it`s way into a 3.6 nightly ?
thanks
anthonyh
Let me ask our devs and will reply back later.
Which Max version you are using ?
Hi Tashko,
we`re still on 3dsmax 2016 although we may jump to 2019 at some point depending on the patches !
thanks
anthonyh
The changes we did for the viewport selections are mostly addressed to versions 2018 - 2019, perhaps in 2016 there won’t be any big difference. Do you plan to upgrade to V-Ray Next when you switch over the latest Max release?
Hi Tashko,
I can`t say if we`re going to update to Vray Next yet, unfortunately I don`t have control of the company wallet !
It`s not a huge issue, maybe I notice it because I have 2019 installed as well for testing so I thought it might be the same. If 2016 isn`t as affected then I`d think we`re ok for the moment.
Honestly I`d be more inclined to upgrade to 2019 if there wasn`t the issue with clicking twice on the menus etc, it`s infuriating but then that`s Autodesk`s problem, I really don`t know how anyone can tolerate it.
thanks
anthonyh
Yes, clicking twice is really annoying in the latest release, however, will see if we can patch the 3.6 with this update. Have a nice day.
Thanks Tashko, that`s great !
anthonyh
We will patch the 3.x builds with this improvement. You will need access to the stable nightly builds.