[Fernando Tella]

Hi,

Max always crashes when hitting "show map in viewport" button for a referenced material.

I know, that button is not supposed to be needed as it automatically shows the map in viewport when the material is referenced, but I tryed to use it when changed material through mxed (not opened through max button) and saved it. Map displayed didn't was updated then.

[Bogdan Coroi]

We'll investigate the crash.

As a short clarification, the update button should have worked, since it was left enabled for exactly this scenario: to update the preview in case the referenced material has to be modified outside of 3dsmax. It was designed to be like this, because the plug-in could not monitor all referenced materials and update the preview when external modified.

[Fernando Tella]

We'll investigate the crash.

Cool. Thank you.

As a short clarification, the update button should have worked, since it was left enabled for exactly this scenario: to update the preview in case the referenced material has to be modified outside of 3dsmax. It was designed to be like this, because the plug-in could not monitor all referenced materials and update the preview when external modified.

That's what I thought: hey! maybe they thought this as an updater for the map. > click > crash.
Good to know you thought about it.

[Bogdan Coroi]

I misunderstood the "show map in viewport" with "update preview" button. I worked on "update preview" that day and it seems my sub-conscience took over. Sorry for this.

Now, after some digging on this crash, it seems that only Max9/2008 are affected. On Max8/7, pressing the "show map in viewport" button doesn't display the map, but at least it doesn't crash.

The crash is pretty serious stuff, and it's mainly because the material works in two modes - referenced and embedded - and "show map in viewport" shouldn't have worked on any of them in the first place. Let me explain...
The embedded material mode doesn't support yet blending weight layers of textures, so having "show map in viewport" enabled is useless. You can verify my words by pressing it :). "show map in viewport" only works on bitmap nodes.
The referenced material mode doesn't have a fully supported bitmap node, it's something that gets created when switching between referenced and embedded type. So, having this unsupported bitmap node, it's hard to convince 3dsmax to display the map when pressing "show map in viewport" or at least not to crash. Also, having the display mechanism changed between 3dsmax versions, it becomes even harder to make it work as expected.

For the next update, we'll try to find a solution, to make it work as expected, but if no such solution can be found, we'll disable the "show map in viewport" button. Of course, embedded mode material will have its bitmap nodes displayed with "show map in viewport", the way it works now.

As a workaround, you can press "Edit" button to start MXED, and just close it. On closing time, the map should be displayed in viewport.

[Fernando Tella]

As a workaround, you can press "Edit" button to start MXED, and just close it. On closing time, the map should be displayed in viewport.

Yep, that works. Maybe a reload/refresh button is enough (and disable "show map in viewport", of course)

[Bubbaloo]

You can also load a bitmap into the "mental ray" section of the material and enable it in viewport as a quick solution.