Is the optix plugin stored in the same place regardless of version?

[RecentSpacesSam]

Hey, we recently updated to max 2024 and Corona 10.1 but for older projects have kept our Max 2022 install on 9.1.

We've noticed that some scenes are getting an error of "Missing DLL: optix.6.5.0.dll" in Max 2022

Is it possible that the installation of Corona 10.1 has removed this from the Max 2022 installation, or that both versions are installed to the same location and 6.5.0 has been overwritten by a newer version?

Cheers

[romullus]

I had similar issue when i wanted to have Corona 9 in 3ds Max 2023 and Corona 10 dailies in Max 2024. Corona 10 installer replaced old Optix dlls with the new ones. I solved this by unpacking files from Corona 9 installer and manually placing Optix files in according folder.

[maru]

Hi Sam, I am afraid this may be expected. As a workaround, I would suggest installing the newest available version of Corona for all 3ds Max versions on your system and then using multiloaders to start 3ds Max with an older version of Corona. It should load the correct version of Optix then.
See: https://docs.chaos.com/display/CRMAX/Multiloaders

On the other hand, using multiloaders in a "classic" way won't work in some cases, for example if you are doing network rendering or sending jobs through some manager. In that case, 3ds Max will be launched normally without the custom Corona version specified. The solution to this would be triggering multiloaders through the render manager you are using, but unfortunately I do not know if that's supported. If it's possible to launch 3ds Max with custom command line arguments, then I believe it should work.

Update: it should be also possible to set the path through Windows registry and have specific 3ds Max version launch specific Corona version. I can't find the instructions right now, will do my best to provide them ASAP. I think it should be specifying the system path through registry.

[RecentSpacesSam]

Thanks both, I think the best option for us might be Romulus' suggestion.
We're using Pulze Render Manager and currently I don't believe it supports using multiloaders.

Ideally if a user has specified to an installer that they are only installing for a specific version of Max then where possible the installer shouldn't touch the previous install or, where possible, give the user the option to decide e.g.
"Corona installer has detected components from version 9.1 associated with 3DS Max 2022, do you want to remove these?"

"Yes I want to update all versions to latest"/"No I want to keep the 9.1 on that version"


Many arch vis studios that have projects that can span years and need to render consistently across that. I have no doubts that the Corona team try to ensure this as much as possible but we sometimes need the reassurance that we can open an old file and not have any issues.

[maru]

What should work:
Specify the PATH via Windows registry. Then 3ds Max 2022 will always launch with Corona 9 and 3ds Max 2024 will always launch with Corona 10 (or whichever versions you specify), even if you use Pulze or other software.

This *should* work, but we need to test it. If you wish, you can try it too.

[maru]

Ok, better late than never. :)

I have 2 updates here:

1 - You can permanently set a specific 3ds Max version to load a specific Corona version:
- Go to "Edit the system environment variables" in Windows (you can just type that into the Start menu)
- Add a new System Variable
- name: CORONA_3DSMAX_2023_LOAD_PATH
- value: C:\my\path\to\corona\version\Corona\Corona Renderer for 3ds Max\2023
(replace 2023 with your 3ds Max version)
This also works when using command-line rendering like Backburner, Pulze, etc, so it should work fine regardless of the order in which you install your Corona versions.
More about multiloaders: https://docs.chaos.com/display/CRMAX/Multiloaders

2 - In Pulze, you can click the red "Corona..." button when a job is reporting an error. This will override the version requirement to ANY Corona version, so the rendering will just start even if Pulze does not detect a match between the version of Corona required by the file and currently detected in the system.