Merge / "Use Merged Materials" not working properly?

[Anonymous]

I have a bunch of materials I need to update across multiple objects in multiple scenes, and am having trouble getting the "Use Merged Materials" to work the way I think it should.

Can someone please have a look at the attached (stripped and simplified) scenes, and try updating the materials in the "MateriaMergelTest.max" to those found in "NEWMATERIALS.max" by merging the contained objects in the latter?

All the materials are named the same as those found in the original scene, and should replace them "automatically", but there are a few that just don't seem to want to "take", no matter what I do.

Any ideas, tips, or work-arounds would be appreciated (though I should add the caveat that selecting individual objects and applying new materials one-by-one via .mat library isn't really feasible).

Thanks!

BTW: Through my solution hunting, I found that the "Apply to All Duplicates" tick-mark doesn't work, and ends up only applying the first of your string of merged materials. You have to click "Use Merged Materials" for each instance... I think this is a bug.

materialmergetest.zip

[jeff]

Do the offending materials contain bitmap textures? That crops up as a bug in certain instances; the bitmap is not properly "remembered". I think the workaround is to export the desired material library, then open the correct library in the new scene, and do a "put materials to scene" operation from the mat.lib. browser.

Hope it helps,
Jeff

[Anonymous]

No, in the attached example scenes, I've removed all bitmaps from all materials.
Using "put materials to scene" doesn't replace the "offenders" either.
Thanks for the suggestions though!

Maybe I'm missing something about the objects or materials that is keeping them from being replaced?

Any other ideas out there?

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

OK, so this is getting weirder...

I found one work-around is to repeatedly merge the objects with the new materials.
Three times in this case managed to replace all the "offending" materials with the updated ones.
HOWEVER
Several of the materials now have multiple unique versions in the scene.

Now there are 3 materials named "01 - Default" (which all started from the same merged one) applied across objects in the scene, and you can change parameters on any one without affecting the others.

I am attaching a reference scene where I did this, changing the diffuse colors.

You can try it yourself with the original files posted up above... Should have the same (odd) results as me.

Having multiple unique materials using the same name in a scene should not be possible, as it opens the door to all sorts of errors/mistakes, but apparently it is.



One more issue to have to "keep an eye out for".

duplicatematerials.zip

[Anonymous]

Can anyone else confirm this behavior, so I know it is not due to something odd about my machine only, and so I can submit a real bug report?

Thanks in advance.

[lwjacob]

I have the same issue in every scene. Always using a multi material. I want it to use the merged material but then it looks bad. Have to apply the materials for everything merged.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @lwjacob,

This is a tough situation, it's an old thread and the OP no longer has an active account.  I think the issues are the same so if I transfer your post to a new thread it makes far less sense in context.  Hmmm.  Let's just tackle this in this thread. 

Do you have a file you could share here, even a simple one?  

Best Regards,

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @lwjacob,

I just wanted to follow up here, any thoughts on my previous post? Thanks for the update!

Best Regards,

[lwjacob]

Good evening Alfred. How are you?

Just did another test and it worked fine.

I am such an idiot. Was pressing the wrong button.

I`ve being using max for so long that I got addicted to the position of some of them.

So sorry for making you waste your time.

Please close the thread again.

Best regards,

Jacob Allgayer

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

No need to be so hard on yourself, it's all good @lwjacob.  You're not an idiot, these things happen.  I overlook things too I'm just as guilty as you on a daily basis!  Don't worry about it, I'm happy to help in any way with future issues.  Thanks for the update!

Best Regards,