Question 3ds Max (retexturing)

[trunkskgb]

I have small question, and I hope there is an answer for it. I recently got back into editing, and I re-installed 3ds Max 8 to finish the maps I started a few years ago. 

When I load my maps, everything is grayed out, even though textures are still applied. How can I fix 3ds so it shows my textures? Is there something I have to configure? A directory or something? 

[Raap]

What you want to do is go here:

Then add a new path to your texture directory. 

But here is the magic trick: to make this work, you have to select a bogus directory within your actual texture directory. 3DS Max 8 for some reason saves the folder above the target folder, rather than the target folder. The target folder could be empty and deleted once this is set up, but you can easily verify what path you have selected on the list of paths.

[ChopBam]

Just now, Raap said:

But here is the magic trick: to make this work, you have to select a bogus directory within your actual texture directory. 3DS Max 8 for some reason saves the folder above the target folder, rather than the target folder. The target folder could be empty and deleted once this is set up, but you can easily verify what path you have selected on the list of paths.

I think you can also just add a blackslash to the directory path and it'll do the directory you're in rather than the parent directory.

[trunkskgb]

1 hour ago, Raap said:

What you want to do is go here:

Then add a new path to your texture directory. 

But here is the magic trick: to make this work, you have to select a bogus directory within your actual texture directory. 3DS Max 8 for some reason saves the folder above the target folder, rather than the target folder. The target folder could be empty and deleted once this is set up, but you can easily verify what path you have selected on the list of paths.

So if my textures are legit in...c://3dsMax/textures (just an example), I'd have to make a folder in THAT directory, and have it read something like ... c://3dsMax/textures/bogusfolder, and configure 3ds to read THAT path, not the 1st directory?

[ChopBam]

54 minutes ago, trunkskgb said:

So if my textures are legit in...c://3dsMax/textures (just an example), I'd have to make a folder in THAT directory, and have it read something like ... c://3dsMax/textures/bogusfolder, and configure 3ds to read THAT path, not the 1st directory?

You should just be able to set it to this:

[trunkskgb]

OMG, thank you! It worked! I can see what I'm doing again! :D

[ChopBam]

Great! Glad to hear.

[Raap]

You'll also want to mess with the texture details.

Go to Customize -> Preferences -> Viewports, at the bottom select "Configure Driver" and then select "Match bitmap as close as possible" twice. I wouldn't touch the rest since 3DS Max 8 is rather unstable on modern operating systems, but having textures warp around meshes or look inconsistent is pretty annoying to work with, and this fixes that.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Raap

[trunkskgb]

Thanks guys!

@Raap OK I'll check that out as well. 

Edited February 27, 2018 by trunkskgb

[trunkskgb]

Kind of off topic here, but I have 3ds installed & working fine on my pc at home, but I just tried to install it on my laptop and now when I open the program, I get an error related to the w3d plugin. How can I fix this little bugger?

[ChopBam]

I remember getting that error a long time ago, and I remember fixing it, but I don't remember how. Which OS is your laptop on? 7? I guess the most basic question would be whether you have the proper w3d mapping plugins in the plugins folder? Another thing is to see if you need to install the directx redistributable from Nov 2008. Do you recall installing anything like this?

[trunkskgb]

Windows 7, and yeah I ran the DX from the tutorials here, just like I did a few months ago on my desktop. I downloaded everything from the setup guide here, just like before.

[Raap]

Are the plugin files where they need to be? It is the most obvious cause for this and also the most likely problem.

If they are in the right places, then consider a full re-installation. On Windows 10 3DS Max very regularly resets certain things like which UI to load, it should be more stable on Windows 7 but it has been a while since I used that.

[trunkskgb]

Full re-install like...3ds max, or Windows 7? I only ask because I just got this laptop and just installed everything lol

[trunkskgb]

I got it working!

[Raap]

Good!

Sometimes you just got to use a bigger hammer.