Texture not Redering

Zacharuno · December 29, 2009, 04:14:11 PM

Hey guys. I've been messing around in Gmax for a little while. Every time I'm done with a bat, and I go to render, the textures end up not being rendered. I uninstalled gmax and the bat gamepack and I reinstalled them both, and I'm still having the same problem. I've searched everywhere for an answer and I haven't found one before. I've posted something similar to this before and the answer I got did not help me. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about, if you need more pictures or information to help me let me know.

puresim · December 29, 2009, 04:53:00 PM

Have you added the UVW modifier for every textured object in your model?

Select an object and then in the top menu Modifiers > UV Coordinates > UVW Map

jmyers2043 · December 29, 2009, 05:29:26 PM

If the above were true? Then you would not see the materials in the gmax window either. As it is the textures go missing when doing the preview render. . . so . . .

You did say that you've been 'messing around for a little while' so I am assume your new at modeling and assume the structure is not a mesh. That you've just modeled some walls and a bunch of other stuff for your parking garage. You apply a parking lot cement texture to the floor. And you do a preview render and the cement looks ok. Next step is to add some brick to the walls. You do another render. But now some textures show up while others do not. This is a gmax Idiosyncrasy

I usually get 90% of the modeling done before I apply textures. Before I do a preview render to see how my newly applied textures look I'll click File > New. I'll be asked if I want to save my changes. I'll click YES. Then I'll be asked if I want 'new all' and I'll click OK. I'll then click FILE again and navigate to the file I just saved and open it. You should be able to see all your textures now when doing a preview. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with the materials library and gmax re-indexing that library when it opens the project again. Be aware - You'll have to go thru the process again as you add textures and wish to do another preview. etc. . . etc . . .

I have to do this all the time. You'll get very fast at it.

Hope this helps.

Zacharuno · December 29, 2009, 08:12:19 PM

I just realized that I put this in the wrong section, but oh well. I appreciate your replies.

I did indeed apply a UVW Map in both projects.

jmyers2043, I followed your steps. I created a small box by creating a rectangle and then extruding it. I then applied the edit mesh to it, and then I added the UVW Map. I then applied a texture and went to the preview. In the preview it did not show up. So I saved it, created a new project and the reopened the test and did the preview again. And again the texture did not show up. I removed the edit mesh, and did the preview, again nothing, saved it, new, open, preview, nothing. I'm not sure what's wrong. I've noticed that previous projects that I had exported and were textured fine, are now not showing their textures in previews. Only one of my former projects is showing textures in the preview, and when I add new textures to the scene the new ones don't show but the old ones do. I've attached pictures:

jmyers2043 · December 29, 2009, 08:21:23 PM

QuoteI then applied the edit mesh to it, and then I added the UVW Map

not sure why you appied a mesh to a box - it appears your modeling process is different than mine. I'll probably not be able to help. I mostly use splines. I only convert boxes to editable polys when I wish to do something complex. At any rate - Good Luck and I hope you get your answer.

gottago · December 30, 2009, 02:26:12 PM

Zacharuno,

This is a commonly encountered gmax bug--I've answered this question 3 times now, after asking it myself when I encountered this same problem when I began to BAT a few months ago.

If you use the material navigator, textures will only be applied for your current session; open your model again, and you will get that plain grey color.

To remedy this bug, create a simple box when you start a new session, then apply all your loaded textures to it using the MN/ME, one after another down the list. Once done, delete the box and the textures will appear on your model for the current session. Close it out, and you have to repeat the operation. A bit of a pain, but you get used to it.

Zacharuno · December 30, 2009, 03:29:22 PM

gottago, you've replied to my request once before and I tried it then, and it did not work, and I just tried it again now. Either I'm not doing what you're saying correctly, which is possible, or there's something else wrong?

I assume what you're saying is this: I open up the current project and apply the textures, then I start a new project and apply the textures to the simple box. Then I delete that box and open up the previous project. I then create a simple box, texture it using the textures I want, and delete and the textures are supposed to be there right? Well it's not working. I've also tried starting a new project, creating the box, texturing it, deleting it, merging the previous scene, using the current materials, and still nothing. I'm probably not doing something correct. Or maybe there's a problem that can't be fixed and I can never create things on my laptop,

cogeo · December 30, 2009, 03:50:05 PM

This (materials getting "lost") is possibly caused by gmax file corruption (as a result of editing). Try this:
- Close gmax and backup your BAT (make a copu of the gmax file) - just for the case that something goes wrong.
- Open gmax/BAT. In your empty scene create a new Omni light, and then delete it. This creates those yellow lighting lines. If you are not finished with your BAT, you can leave this step for the end.
- In the menu select File->Merge, and select your BAT file.
- In the list that follows, select everything except TB2CameraHandle and click OK. This will import all obects of your BAT and will delete the unused materials (cleaning the list).
- Save the file (overwrite the old file - you have taken a backup, haven't you?), and exit.
- Open gmax/BAT again and attempt a new export.

So the procedure is basically transfer your BAT into a new file, to eliminate corruption. I would suggest that you do so before exporting a big BAT (as a precaution), as it takes a lot of time, while this precedure takes only a minute or two.

Hope this helps. Please let us know the results.

gottago · December 31, 2009, 06:41:11 PM

Z, it's not as complex as you have it. Just create a "std primitive" box anywhere in the current scene you are working on that has lost its textures--don't create a new scene, merge, or do anything else. Then apply all your textures to the box using the MN/ME--one after the other, just apply them all to the box, nothing else, no deletions, just tok, tok, tok.

This will refresh the links to the textures that get broken when you close out a session (it's not a corrupted .gmax file that's the cause, it's gmax itself--this happens to many users). Then just delete the box and you're good to go (for your current session, at least).

Good luck with it!