Messages

31

[Max] I need help! / Re: Containers & other ways to organize bigger scenes

« on: 2023-10-18, 19:32:25 »

Hi Aram,

thank you so much for your input, I had read the documentation and after 1 month of incorporating Containers into my workflow and working with a partner I have some insight to add that may help others who try to work collaboratively.

Containers generally are a great way to reduce the size of your scene, same as with Xrefs but offering you the much needed ability to edit your referenced scenes in place (without needing to fire up another max instance).

There are container-dependent rules that specify how the container is loaded into the scene's layer structure and what permissions each user has.

The MAIN ISSUE that unfortunately seems to be a deal-breaker for me is that when editing in place there is NO WARNING about the existence of duplicate materials.

Let's say I have two materials both named Material#1, in my main scene and in the container. The moment I click Edit-in-place for the container it will put its materials to the scene, meaning now every instance of geometry using Material#1 in my scene will be now using the overwritten Material#1 from the container. You have to adopt the habit of naming your materials specifically, which depending in your workflow you may already be doing, but you can see how this can be catastrophic, even for the careful ones.

I wish they would add the option to choose if you wish to merge the container's materials into the scene, or keep the ones from the main scene, when editing in place.

Let me know if anyone has any different experience. Thanks!
 

32

General CG Discussion / Re: Max hangs for 2-3 minutes upon every "Unhide all"

« on: 2023-10-12, 11:07:56 »

Is any scene manager docked while unhiding? I find that having my layer manager visible often leads to a significant delay when selecting objects, especially if Display Influences or Display Dependents is on.

33

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: Coronaproxy exporter broken

« on: 2023-09-21, 13:48:38 »

I experienced the same thing some time ago and although I can't remember exactly what fixed it, I'm sure it was one of the following:

• Restart Max/Windows
• Connect/Disconnet external display (it may have to do with windows being offscreen or their positions/size)
• Reset Max UI or make a backup and reset your ENU folder.

Also check if it does the same thing in a new Max instance and if it doesn't, merge your entire scene into a new one.

Good luck!

34

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 11 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2023-09-08, 15:36:51 »

I guess we would have to define what "should do" means to everyone. Certainly, it works for its intended purpose.

But having a toggle for real-time denoising in Render Setup and having a checkbox for denoising in the VFB while in IR (albeit grayed-out) with no connection between them is a missed opportunity. Having to go into Reder Setup while in IR to enable/disable it is a task that can take more than 10 seconds, with 3ds Max lagging and all.

So for me also, it "should" turn real-time denoising on/off, in addition to Hiqh-quality denoising for final images.

35

[Max] I need help! / Re: Strip / partial rendering

« on: 2023-09-08, 02:21:35 »

I'm not aware of any option to render the image into strips.

The ideal, fastest way would be to add 64gb more ram for a total of 128gb. If you have run out of ram slots on your motherboard you would have to trade your 64gb for 128gb sticks, which may not be something you want to do at the moment. 128gb is fairly common in Corona, especially if you want to populate bigger scenes.

Other than that, you can take a look at the Ram usage breakdown to see which geometries or textures are the heaviest. Try to not go above 4K for textures (you rarely need it). Try to troubleshoot your scene using IR (see which geometries take longer to load).

You can also try enabling the "Conserve memory" option under Render Setup / Performance, but I have had trouble with it in the past.

Hope it helps!

36

[Max] I need help! / Containers & other ways to organize bigger scenes

« on: 2023-09-05, 18:36:56 »

Hello,

has anyone tried incorporating Containers into their workflow? I tested them in a small scene and seemed to offer functionality that neither groups, xrefs or proxies do. But I'm reading they can be buggy at times (?)

I have started working with a collaborator on projects and I would love it if you had any good tips about organizing bigger scenes, or maybe a tutorial you could point me too?

Thanks

37

[Max] I need help! / Re: chamfer+displacement

« on: 2023-08-31, 13:35:15 »

Are you sure UVW and Displacement min/max values are the same in both cases? I typically avoid using negative displacement values as it can lead to the problems shown in your first image.

38

[Max] I need help! / Re: Need help with DR setup

« on: 2023-08-25, 15:19:19 »

This is really helpful, I have also been exploring the possiblity of setting up a network more elaborated than my current setup in order to accomodate more seats.

My main goal is not DR but to have a second person collaborate with me in my running projects (not exactly the topic discussed here but the solutions presented still apply). I would be happy to start a new thread if necessary.

I have 2 computers with 1gbps network cards, connected with an ethernet cable. All assets and project files are stored in an NVME of the first PC, which is far from ideal (PC needs to stay on for the other person to work, file transfer speeds are capped to 100mb/s, max gets slow trying to gather all necessary files etc)

From this discussion I understand that the best way currently available is to follow a setup similar to dj_buckley, where all assets and project files are stored on the NAS, using a 10gbps connection to run everything.

So my questions are these:

1. NAS accept HDD/SSDs if im not mistaked (im currently storing files in an NVME). Have you experienced any 3DSMAX slowdows due to everything being stored over the network compared to working locally?

2. Will a network card upgrade to 10gbps for both PCs get them up to speed for such a setup?

(How to split a given project/scene in order for more than 1 people to be working on simultaneously is surely a topic for another thread)

39

[Max] General Discussion / ACES/Photographic Exposure/Filmic Tone Mapping etc

« on: 2023-07-22, 16:34:41 »

Hello,

I have been using 3ds Max + Corona for a couple years now for ArchViz and I'm always trying to improve my images and experiment with different settings.

Since knowing the software alone will enable you to produce photo-realistic results but can only get you so far, I feel like I need to get a better understanding of color spaces, real-life camera parameters etc.

To narrow this down a bit, I will start by asking a few questions that come to mind:

1) What is ACES Colour space? I know that 3ds Max + Corona cannot natively work in it but it can be applied in Post through the VFB but I typically play with the value until I get a satisfying result, depending on the image. Do real-life photographers work in ACES?

2) Is it better to work with Photographic exposure turned on? I find it produces more "boring" results compared to it being turned off, less punchy images etc.

3) What is the difference between Highlight compression, Filmic tone mapping, Tone Curve etc?

I know most things are a matter of personal taste and these question may be quite broad to answer, but pointing me to documentation/tutorials would be great.

Thank you!!

40

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: Amd and corona 10 super slow performance not using more than 50% cpu

« on: 2023-07-12, 12:20:56 »

Dropping my 2 cents here, I have also seen this behaviour myself on a 3970x, but it is mostly scene-dependent and possibly related to region rendering.

Observed in Corona 7, 8 and 9. Cpu drops to 30-40% utilization every couple of second before returning to 100%. It's happening rarely enough that I have learned to live with it :)

41

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: SME Very Slow on Corona 10

« on: 2023-06-24, 11:42:31 »

SME has been the no.1 productivity-killer for me for some years now, mostly due to how 3ds Max handles it. Disabling material previews (bottom-left) improves things a bit, but it remains slow as hell, especially during IR. Wires won't be drawn if you don't click on the map output 3-4 times, the UI constantly freezes etc.

I am using Corona 9 with hotfixes. Has anyone tried 3ds max 2024 (SME has been rewritten i think) to see if it is any speedier?

42

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Re: 3DS Max freezes indefinitely at "Cleaning up" rendering phase

« on: 2023-02-15, 11:39:04 »

Thank you for the follow-up, to be honest It has become a habit for me to not leave Bloom&Glare enabled at the Cleaning up phase, or switch to a different tab than Post, as I mentioned in the first post.

So I can't really comment on whether the problem is gone, but I haven't encountered it again since.

43

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Re: Device or Resource Busy Error at the beginning of Render

« on: 2023-02-15, 11:34:09 »

Hello,

I am now on Corona 9 and haven't encountered the error since.

Thank you for the follow-up.

44

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Scaling Lights

« on: 2023-01-23, 15:17:43 »

I guess it wouldn't be too difficult for someone (with better Maxscript skills than me) to write a small script that translates scale sizes to light dimensions..
Having all those custom scales wouldn't sit too well with me, from a scene organization standpoint. For example, one could have two lights that are instanced, so same Intensity and Length/Width, but produce different illumination because of custom ScaleX/Y values.

Having said that, I too would like to know if it would be totally ok to scale lights and not worry about artifacts or other issues. Wouldn't you run into issues if you created a light of 1cm by 1cm with an Intensity of 1, and then scale it by a large value to have it illuminate a large scene?

45

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Re: Max completely freezing when using the copy button in the VFB when running IR

« on: 2022-12-09, 18:59:10 »

I remember bumping into the same problem on Corona 7. Bloom&Glare was definitely to blame, and I believe changing the VFB tab from Post to any other (say Stats) fixed the problem, if I remember correctly.

It happened on a specific project and hasn't happened again since, but I have learned to leave Bloom&Glare disabled until the render is finished.