Crash with OSL wParallax

[vizset]

Hello!

In 3ds Max 2023 with Corona 9 I have stable crashes with OSL wParalllax textures.
I use OSL map on physical material with self-illumination and corona multi-map inside.
In empty scenes OSL works correctly.

Previous version 2020 with Corona 8 works correctly (including huge scenes with the same material), I didn't change any parameters, paths. etc.

[romullus]

I moving the topic to bug reporting board, but please read this article and provide additional material that would help to identify the issue, like minidumps, scenes, assets that's cause the issue.

https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4649117083409-How-to-report-issues-3ds-Max-

[maru]

Yep, we will need the scene itself, or at least specific instructions how to reproduce the crash.
The most convenient way to report the bug and attach your files will be through our support portal - https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

[vizset]

I moving the topic to bug reporting board, but please read this article and provide additional material that would help to identify the issue, like minidumps, scenes, assets that's cause the issue.

https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4649117083409-How-to-report-issues-3ds-Max-

Date/Time: 2022-11-17 14:53:31 +05:00
Application: 3dsmax.exe
Error: Unknown exception - code c000000d (first/second chance not available)
Crashed Module Name: ucrtbase.dll
Exception Address: 0x00007fff5bfc1881
Exception Code: c000000d

[maru]

Thanks! We will look into it.

[SmurfN]

ive also been having some issues with this i suspect, but seemingly only on my computer in the office. opening many scenes with wParallax the first render renders fine, then if i stop and start a render it crashes 90% of the times if it contains wParallax planes. If i hide the wParallax in the scene it seems to work fine.
Not sure but i think its happening if i have the wParallax material in my material editor visible.

[GeorgeK]

ive also been having some issues with this i suspect, but seemingly only on my computer in the office. opening many scenes with wParallax the first render renders fine, then if i stop and start a render it crashes 90% of the times if it contains wParallax planes. If i hide the wParallax in the scene it seems to work fine.
Not sure but i think its happening if i have the wParallax material in my material editor visible.

Hi I have tried to reproduce the crash but was unsuccessful, would it be possible to share an archived scene with us that the issue is reproducible? Ideally use: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4649117083409-How-to-report-issues-3ds-Max- as suggested above. Thanks!

[maru]

Hi VIZSET and SmurfN, could you please share some more details here and/or submit support tickets about this issue? You can submit tickets here: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
As George explained, so far we were unable to reproduce the crash.

[vizset]

Thank you for your response! I sent request #68772, the full file is included.

[NikHappy]

Hello!

In 3ds Max 2023 with Corona 9 I have stable crashes with OSL wParalllax textures.
I use OSL map on physical material with self-illumination and corona multi-map inside.
In empty scenes OSL works correctly.

Previous version 2020 with Corona 8 works correctly (including huge scenes with the same material), I didn't change any parameters, paths. etc.

I have the same problem! 9 times from 10 3ds Max crashes. First render (no matter regular or interactive) is OK. But the next one crashes the 3ds Max.
My colleague has the same problem (his setup: 3ds Max 2023.2 + Corona 9 + Win 10 / my setup: 3ds Max 2023.2.2 + Corona 9 + Win 11).
Everything was fine in the previous versions: 3ds max 2022.2 + Corona 8

[mienda]

Same for me, yesterday I tried to render a simple plane with an evermotion archmaterials 4 texture and 3dsmax crashes inexorably but somewhat randomly (sometimes after the 1st render or sometimes after a few renders). I use the evermotion OSL script (which automates the creation of OSL material)
I'm on max 2023.2.2, win 11 and corona 9.
Thanks a lot
mienda

[scionik]

Hi, dev.team,
Could you please help me? OSL parallax is time to time crashes 3ds Max to desktop in different scenarios. Most crashes occur while playing with materials (different, not only with OSL parallax). Could you please check it out to be sure wats wrong with it?

PS
I'm using 3ds Max 2023.2.2 with Corona 9 (there is a lot of information on the Internet about the correct working parallax with 3ds Max 2022 corona 7, unfortunately, I cannot check it out).
I cannot get the 3ds Max minidump file, because crashing won't display this window.

Report #69464

[vizset]

The problem is still repeated on Corona 9 Hotfix 1.

upd.
The team is investigating the scene. Thanks them to all.

[scionik]

some news about it?

[maru]

We were contacted by multiple users, we have at least one scene where the issue is reproduced and a minidump. The issue is reported for the dev/QA teams to investigate. I cannot tell what is wrong right now, but if it's something in Corona, we should be able to fix it. Crashes are high priority for us.

[scionik]

Thank you

[NikHappy]

We were contacted by multiple users, we have at least one scene where the issue is reproduced and a minidump. The issue is reported for the dev/QA teams to investigate. I cannot tell what is wrong right now, but if it's something in Corona, we should be able to fix it. Crashes are high priority for us.

I switched back to 3ds Max 2022.3 + Corona 9, and now render launch crashes with OSL are completely gone. So most likely the problem is in 3ds Max 2023, and not in Corona

[Ink Visual]

We still have crashes on Max 2022.3, so I think the issue is still there, either on the plugin side (wParallax) or Corona

[rowmanns]

For info we have this reported and I'll let you know when we have some more information.

Cheers,

Rowan

(Internal ID=1017652424)

[artmaknev]

Hello,

Can you please contact hello(at)wparallax.com

We are working on some solutions to this issue, will be good to get some beta testers of new scene setups to check if it still crashes.

Thanks!

[artmaknev]

I can also confirm, the error occurs in max 2023 and corona9 (also vray6). 
Not sure if it is max problem, renderer problem, or osl (however, osl seems to work fine in previous versions).
I was doing different tests with different material setups, original wparallax material setups use multimaps, I have tried without and it crashes but less ofthen. 

A very strange thing is that wparallax original scene works perfectly fine with alot of constand tweaking and basically pushing everything to the limit, absolutely no crashes occur.  Only when importing the planes into a new project scene, then the crashes might occur, sometimes it works just fine, and other times just randomly crashes.   So, maybe the issue is with Material Edtior, because in a new scene, the materials are not yet loaded?

UPDATE: Just tested same scene in Max 2022 + Corona 9, there is no crash, works totally fine with all the tweaking of osl maps in material editor.

[Helldoor]

Hey there,

are there any updates on the issue since February?
I experience the same problems the members before me described: Constant crashes since I have some wParallax planes in my scene. It doesn't necessarily happen after the first Interactive Render - the crashes are pretty random, but quite constant in their appearance.

I use Max 2023 with Corona 9, both updated to the latest product versions.

[mienda]

Same for me, even the new version of parallax shaders crashes randomly but inexorably. it is totally unusable in production because it is far too unstable. I tested them on max 2022, 2023 and 2024 with corona 9 without success..

[Helldoor]

@mienda

Well, I wouldn't go as far as calling it "totally unusable", as I managed to finish a competition, using parallax for the retail areas and thus saving tons of time and render ressources, but it surely is infuriating and far from how it should be.
The workaround I went with was setting up the parralax while the scene was still lightweight. Had to put up with constant saving and occasional crashes for a while, but after the parallax planes were set up, I just made the layer they were on invisible and was able to continue working without further crashes. Then, I'd just turn them on for preview renders and the final production (4K) and had no problems finishing the project.

Hope the issue will get resolved soon, though. Parallax solutions are a big help and it would be great to be able to use reliably.

[arjitmehra]

Any updates on this? Happens mostly with a lot of Parallax maps in the scene.

[mienda]

Same for me, I hope it will be fixed soon because I suffered random crashes when opening, manipulating and rendering with all OSL parallax systems (as well with the new version of Wparallax and versions of Evermotion ( archmodels 267 and 271) I tested these materials on 2 different systems (threadripper 3990X and Intel i9 13900HX) with 3dsmax2024 and corona 9 HF3 without success.. These materials are not reliable at all and are unusable in production.

Thanks

[gabor]

Hi,
I have the same problem, on Corona 10.1 and max 23 and 24 too. I schould render an animation with the maps, but currently this is not possible, since max crashes after the first render almost on each rendernodes...
Anyone found a workaround?
Thanks.

[gabor]

Hi,
has this been solved, or am I missing something? Since the topic has been moved to the solved section...
Thanks.

[Juraj]

Weird, why is this in solved? The OSL wParallax has such a potential to revolutionize workflow in ArchViz but not if it's crash-fest :- (.

It could be the fault of the particular OSL, but not OSL in general by itself since I still use lot of OSL nodes in my shaders that are completely fine.

[aaouviz]

Yep, constant crashes here for me too.

[Ink Visual]

Yep, this is definately not solved yet.
We would love to use it in production, but simply cannot due to instability.

[gabor]

Guys, you should try the shadersbox method, also from wParallax. It uses an already unwrapped box, you just have to apply the exr map to it. For me, it's working fine with the same maps as the osl version, but without crasing max. There are no osl maps in the scene, but the windows have the same 3d effect.

[Ink Visual]

The box method is just not as convenient as using simple plane behind the window. It's much harder to set up procedurally if there are many building types involved.
Planes + OSL are so much better and faster to use, if only they weren't crashing.

[maru]

Sorry for the lack of updates. According to the minidump that we received, the crash is inside 3ds Max and it can be reproduced without having Corona installed at all.
If you are not happy about something and you have a scene and/or minidump, please always contact us about it here: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
The best thing we can do here is to contact Autodesk, and for this to work out we also need your permission to share your scenes/minidumps with them.

[denyskozakov]

Hey! I still have this problem, any updates about this? Thanks!

[wparallax]

Hi guys,

Indeed, the crash issue is very very strange, we are trying to find some solutions, but at the moment, best option is to use lower res maps (2K, 1K), or the Box Method. The OSL seems to be pretty clean, already asked two OSL devs to double check.

What I am trying now is to convert EXRs to TX files, someone has suggested that it is a very efficient way to render textures because it automatically downscales and upscales the textures depending how far or close you are to the plane.  TX format also loads much faster and allows for thousands of planes to be rendered without running out of RAM.  So far, some tests were quite successful with this format, aside from some error messages by corona/vray renderers, but it didn't affect the rendering. 

If you have access to Retail Pack 2, we added an Experimental File into Retail Pack 2 folder on gumroad, please give it a try. 

If anyone else without Retail 2 access, is interested to try the mipmapping tx file type, please let me know.

Best,
Art

[Ink Visual]

Bumping this one up.
Anyone has used OSL wPrallax successfully in production with Max 2024 & Corona 11 Combo?
Are crashes still present or has this been somehow fixed?

[jorge9124]

Hello everyone! I still have this problem on 3dsmax 2023/Corona 12.1,  is there a solution?

[Juraj]

In my opinion no, I stopped using almost all OSL, not just this one. The risk of random crash was just too high.

The alternative for Parallax planes OSL, is just .EXR mapped box. It works just as good, but requires positioning a box instead of just plane... it's less useful, but still useful.

[wparallax]

Hi everyone,

I know how frustrating it can be with those random crashes...still looking for solutions.  I have just added TX Version in the Free Scene, for people to test out.  This TX textures were already included in Retail 2 and Lobby 1 packs, but I haven't heard anyone use them yet, and what were their results.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could give it a try, please not, delete all the EXR planes in your scenes, otherwise it will not count as a test because OSL might crash again using any EXR texture.  So please only test with those TX OSL planes in your scene, create alot of planes (like at least 40-50), please also create not just instances, but also many copies, to have some variations. 

If you have Lobby pack 1 or Retail 2, please also try only using TX OSL planes and let me know how it goes, when I was testing the TX textures it worked well, especially the 2K ones, the mipmapping is automatically reducing the size of the texture from 2K to tiny size when viewed from far away.  If those TX textures are successful and people have no crashes, then I plan to convert all wParallax to this format.

Free Scene: https://wparallax.gumroad.com/l/YyRmU

Best regards,
Art Maknev

[Ink Visual]

Hi wparallax,
just to mentione we have tried to give parallax packs another go in the latest projects and we haven't had any crashes.
With that said, we did decide to play it safe, we limited usage to low res texture only. This isn't quite working for closer eye-level perspectives but gave us satisfactory results for aerial type of shots.
We will test the TX textures soon.
Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I know how frustrating it can be with those random crashes...still looking for solutions.  I have just added TX Version in the Free Scene, for people to test out.  This TX textures were already included in Retail 2 and Lobby 1 packs, but I haven't heard anyone use them yet, and what were their results.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could give it a try, please not, delete all the EXR planes in your scenes, otherwise it will not count as a test because OSL might crash again using any EXR texture.  So please only test with those TX OSL planes in your scene, create alot of planes (like at least 40-50), please also create not just instances, but also many copies, to have some variations. 

If you have Lobby pack 1 or Retail 2, please also try only using TX OSL planes and let me know how it goes, when I was testing the TX textures it worked well, especially the 2K ones, the mipmapping is automatically reducing the size of the texture from 2K to tiny size when viewed from far away.  If those TX textures are successful and people have no crashes, then I plan to convert all wParallax to this format.

Free Scene: https://wparallax.gumroad.com/l/YyRmU

Best regards,
Art Maknev

[wparallax]

Hi Ink Visual, 
Its good to hear you have some success, please do try the TX version, if you need more TX textures please contact me directly as well. 
It does seem to work better with lower res textures, maybe 3K-4K is pushing the limit of OSL shader, I think the sweetspot will be 2K textures, with more testing I will probably add 2K maps for all the packs some time soon.

Forgot to mention, some people experience more crashes using Slate Material Editor, when I did some tests, it is indeed crashing sometimes in Slate, and I had no crash in Compact Editor, very strange also.

Best,
Art

[maru]

Unfortunately, I was able to crash it in 5 minutes simply by starting Corona IR and adjusting the position of furniture. I have a minidump and will report it to our devs.

[wparallax]

Hi Maru,

Did you have a crash using TX file?

This seems to be the most common crashing issue, when tweaking the settings in the OSL shader, also I have noticed more crashes when using IR plus the Slate Editor is also rendering the small previews at the same time (actually each sliding of just 0.01 splaces creates new preview), when turning off the Render preview in the Slate Editor there are less crashes.  I will try to get in contact with the OSL dev again to test a few options, perhaps adding higher intervals  (to 0.1 instead of 0.01) when sliding furniture layer will ease the OSL calculations, and maybe locking the limit to how far you can slide each layer can also help. 

If you can also test it on your side, that will be great as well.

Thanks!
Art

[maru]

Hi Maru,

Did you have a crash using TX file?

Yes, using a file with TX textures only.

This is now reported to our devs as (Report ID=CMAX-1295).

[wparallax]

Thanks for also looking into this issue, I am in contact again with OSL dev, he will also try to do some more tests...

Hopefully, this problem can be fixed soon!

[wparallax]

Hi guys,

Can you please try again to do some testing, but DO NOT use mouse to slide the distances, only try to enter the distances manually.  For me it only crashes when using mouse, manually entering numbers doesn't crash at all. 

Can you let me know what happens on your end?

Thanks!
Art