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Hi all,

Using Maxwell 2.0, 3ds Max Design 2010 64-bit, windows vista 64.

Having some issues here... trying to render a very basic plane with wood texture map applied using 3ds max material wizard and "textured" preset. map path is correct and hitting render i get:

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[30/September/2009 17:49:54] Loading Bitmaps & Preprocessing Data
WARNING: - Default Material not specified. Lambert grey will be used.
</tt>
ERROR: - Error loading bitmaps
</tt>
ERROR: - Data preprocess failed. Render cannot continue

ERROR: - Render Failed

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Next problem, possibly related, all new materials I create using library MXMs the path is screwed up. Any texture map at all that is loaded with a Library MXM is using this path:

here is an example (the Leather material):

C:/Program Files/Next Limit/Maxwell 2/materials database/mxm files/\nor_lumpy.png

1: The "/" should be "\" no?
2: The path should be ....."materials database\textures\" not "\mxm files\" no?
3: what is the crazy /\ at the end? can't make up it's mind?

Basically, is there a way I can set all these library files to point to the correct path?

Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers,

did you check your asset directory in max to see if there are any conflicts? i had similar thing happen the other day and all i had to do was reset the paths in the asset tracking window. Top Menu -> File -> Asset Tracking ( or Shift+T)

hi there,

asset tracker shows no problems except that each map has an exclamation mark next to it saying "unknown status". not sure what that means! any ideas?

the paths seem to be fine though. i've also gone through every single material in the scene and manually checked the dirs.

i've tried the following VERY simple test:

1) open max and set Maxwell as renderer
2) draw plane
3) draw sphere on plane
4) apply Library material "wall white"
5) apply some basic UVW map modifier
6) change dodgy map paths in material to the proper path
7) hit render

it DOES render but I get this warning:

[30/September/2009 19:07:23] Checking Data
[30/September/2009 19:07:23] Loading Bitmaps & Preprocessing Data
WARNING: - Default Material not specified. Lambert grey will be used.
</tt>

makes no sense to me!

ok it appears that, within Renderer itself, I need to change the Materials tab "Default" path to C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\mxm files\default.mxm for it to work. It was previously (default) pointing to the wrong folder.

I'll now try this on my proper scene.

edit: does not work.

alexyork3d wrote:each map has an exclamation mark next to it saying "unknown status". not sure what that means!

it means your maps aren't properly loaded into the scene. all assets should say "OK"
highlight the ones that don't say "OK" (highlight multiple if they all share the same root) then at the top of the asset tracking window, go Paths -> Set Paths, and point to directory relative to map/asset

rusteberg wrote:

alexyork3d wrote:each map has an exclamation mark next to it saying "unknown status". not sure what that means!

it means your maps aren't properly loaded into the scene. all assets should say "OK"
highlight the ones that don't say "OK" (highlight multiple if they all share the same root) then at the top of the asset tracking window, go Paths -> Set Paths, and point to directory relative to map/asset

i'd already tried that, and i've just tried again but they all still say "unknown status".

mystery!

i might try moving the entire maxwell library folder onto my other HDD and try that.

thanks for your help so far!

tried moving the DB into a new folder and setting path again but same thing, still says "unknown status".

starting to think this is a 3ds max problem independent of maxwell!

Having some issues here... trying to render a very basic plane with wood texture map applied using 3ds max material wizard and "textured" preset. map path is correct and hitting render i get:

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[30/September/2009 17:49:54] Loading Bitmaps & Preprocessing Data
WARNING: - Default Material not specified. Lambert grey will be used.
</tt>
ERROR: - Error loading bitmaps
</tt>
ERROR: - Data preprocess failed. Render cannot continue

ERROR: - Render Failed

Can you tell me the exact path for the textures you're using?

Bogdan Coroi wrote:

Having some issues here... trying to render a very basic plane with wood texture map applied using 3ds max material wizard and "textured" preset. map path is correct and hitting render i get:

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[30/September/2009 17:49:54] Loading Bitmaps & Preprocessing Data
WARNING: - Default Material not specified. Lambert grey will be used.
</tt>
ERROR: - Error loading bitmaps
</tt>
ERROR: - Data preprocess failed. Render cannot continue

ERROR: - Render Failed

Can you tell me the exact path for the textures you're using?

sure - i've tried these two:

Z:\materials database\textures\

and

C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell 2\materials database\textures\

neither works

perhaps it's the space between these folder names that is throwing it off?

i've just noticed that my Asset Tracking screen is showing "Autodesk Vault 2009" and not 2010... perhaps that's the problem? Will see if there's a 2010 version I can install.

Can you please export the fail scene to Studio or at least the material to MXED and paste the path that gets exported?

The problem is that the MXM library materials contain texture paths pointing to "c:\program files (x86)\Next Limit\Maxwell\materials database\textures". The real installation directory in your case is different. The plug-in can't find the textures at the location contained in the MXM file, so it tries to look for them in the same directory as the MXM. They're not there either, so the render fails.

The plug-in patch will also look for missing files inside the "textures" directory of the materials database, which will fix this particular issue. In general, when you're loading MXM files with bad paths, you can either fix them with the asset tracker, or specify a texture search path in customize -> user paths -> external files. The asset tracker method is recommended, because it also fixes the paths as seen by the preview code, so the textures can be displayed in the viewport.

The warning about the default material is harmless, you can ignore it.

Mihnea Balta wrote:The problem is that the MXM library materials contain texture paths pointing to "c:\program files (x86)\Next Limit\Maxwell\materials database\textures". The real installation directory in your case is different. The plug-in can't find the textures at the location contained in the MXM file, so it tries to look for them in the same directory as the MXM. They're not there either, so the render fails.

The plug-in patch will also look for missing files inside the "textures" directory of the materials database, which will fix this particular issue. In general, when you're loading MXM files with bad paths, you can either fix them with the asset tracker, or specify a texture search path in customize -> user paths -> external files. The asset tracker method is recommended, because it also fixes the paths as seen by the preview code, so the textures can be displayed in the viewport.

The warning about the default material is harmless, you can ignore it.

hi,

i've tried all of the above but still no luck. using the asset tracker all the paths look correct. i'm still getting the same error. here are pics:


after exporting 3ds max material > mxm and opening in Material Editor


notice here that the map isn't loaded in the slot


this shows it once i've selected the map in the slot

is there a new 3ds max plugin i need to download with this issue fixed?

thanks,

Can you show me an asset tracker screenshot, please?

There's no newer build yet, we're still working on the patch.