Okay folks… bear with me on this. It is hard to describe briefly.
I’ve got a MAX8 file that is doing some weird things and I’ve tried everything I can think of to isolate the problem.
Rename Maxstart.max file
Launch MAX 8
Change default renderer to Scanline, render, and back to Vray 1.5RC3
Create Rectangle01 and extrude it by 2. Which in my unit setup translates to 2’0”
Render Perspective view
Then I create a VRayPhysicalCamera01 and activate the viewport
Move the Camera up for a clearer view of the object
Then I create a VRaySun01 and answer “Yes” when asked about the VRaySky map.
Render the Physical Camera view
NOW…. And until I exit and restart Max…
The value in the Extrude modifier for the Rectangle01 has changed to 1’0”, but the geometry hasn’t!!
If I retype 2 and hit enter the value changes to 1’0” and consequentially changing the geometry to 1 foot high.
I can type 10 in the box and hit enter. It changes to 9’0”. I can keep hitting the enter key repeatedly watching the value decrease by 1 foot each time. When it reaches 0’0” the behavior stops. The same occurs with negative values. They approach zero in both scenarios.
The weird thing is… I can type 2’1 and the value and geometry remain as expected. Anything in exact feet gets shifted 1 foot toward zero.
I’ve been using the same Units setup for years and have only recently begun using Vray Cams and Lights.
US Standard “Feet w/Fractional Inches” set to ¼
Default Units “Feet”
System Units Scale 1 = 1 inch
Respect System Units in Files is checked
Distance from origin = 0’1”
Resulting Accuracy = 0’0”
This odd behavior doesn’t occur in MAX9 and files seemingly corrupted in MAX8 open fine in 9. I’m just not 100% ready to switch over yet.
I sure hope someone out there can help me on this. I was looking forward to finally using some of the Vray lighting and camera systems.
I don’t think this is directly V-Ray related, as V-Ray doesn’t do anything specific in this regard, but you can try to either increase the spinner precision value in the Customize panel and/or delete the 3dsmax.ini file and see if it helps.
I was just reading another post regarding the same issue. As your reply came on the board, I was just finishing the test of deleting the 3dsmax.ini file and repeated the steps in my initial post.
The results are the same. I don’t see how this could not be a VRay issue when it occurs immediately after rendering a simple box with a Physical Camera and a VRaySun and Sky.
I’m sure there is something unique to our installations (mine and the others that have seen this before). I just need to find out what it is.
I’ve tried this after clearing out everything but VRay and the MAX stock dlls in the plugins directory. I’ve been tempted to re-install Vray, but get nervous in mid project of the possibility of the auth-delay. Will it ask for a new auth code?
I appreciate the quick response, but please don’t give up on me yet.
Well, I can reproduce this here, but I still think it is a bug in 3dsmax when displaying values in feet - it only works with the “Decimal feet” setting, while for anything else, the value is incorrectly displayed. Working with international units (meters/cm/mm) seems fine as well. Unfortunately, there is little that I can do to correct it. Since this is fine in 3dsmax 9, I assume it is already corrected on the Autodesk side.
Darrin has been asking me if I can duplicate this. I have RC2 installed on my max8 and I cannot reproduce this no matter what I set me units to. I don’t really know if I want to install RC3 on my R8 as I am keeping it as it was when I upgraded to R9 just in case any old projects come back.
Vlado, can you reproduce this with RC2 or RC4 in max8?
In RC4, yes. I noticed that if you use not feet, but e.g. cm or mm as your generic units, but still keep the display units at feet, it will also be fine.
Well, I don’t get the error on my machine either; I was using another machine on the network. I can’t test RC2 until tomorrow though as I am at home now.