3ds Max 2018 DPI scaling 4k issue

[marksman123]

3ds Max 2018 is unusable for me. The screen is 1/4 of the size and the rest is all black. I restored windows, along with hours of reinstalling all of my softwares/plugins, and it was working fine, then it reverted back agian out of nowhere. I have no idea what to do now. Can someone please help me?

[miledrizk]

Hi,

Try this link it might help

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Compatib...

[marksman123]

Thanks for the reply, but that didn't resolve it. This is a screenshot of what it looks like:

[miledrizk]

i see,

Well i don't have a 4k screen so i never had this issue,

But did you try changing the graphics mode?

Or, did you try resetting your User Settings(this is mentioned in the link i posted)

[marksman123]

Yes, I did all of those things and it still doesn't work. Still shows that crazy UI with black areas

[miledrizk]

I'm out of ideas! 🙂

Except for asking if you tried to update your Graphic Card's driver from the

Manufacturer site.

[marksman123]

Thanks, I already have the latest driver. Going to roll back to an older one and see what happens.

[dallanp]

I too have been struggling with this problem for months. I have a Dell 5k display and run in 200% scaling mode .Everything was just fine and Max looked great for months. Then something happened (an update? a system bluescreen? dont know) and then 3DS Max stopped scaling correctly and my screen looks exactly like the earlier screenshot. Whatever happened, I think it corrupted some sort of user settings (registry? settings??) because if I log out and into a different user, Max looks perfect again scaling at 200% just fine.

A temporary workaround is to either:

1. change your DPI scaling to 149% (not 150%) and it will scale correctly to 149%. This is too small for a 5k with old-person eyes though so it's not a fix.
2. right-click on the 3DSMax executable and set the DPI scaling mode in the "Compatibility" tab to be "Override high DPI" = "System Enhanced". It scales, but it's blurry.

Other notes:

Unity3D's DPI scaling also broke around that same time on my computer. The different user account didn't fix this problem. Eventually Unity DPI fixed itself with a Windows update thankfully. These events together might have just be coincidence and totally unrelated though.

[marksman123]

Thanks for making me feel not so alone. This is driving me nuts!

Can I please ask you a favor?

When you fullscreen the slate material editor, and pan around with your middle mouse button, is it SUPER unresponsive?

When I put the DPI override to system it becomes smooth, but with everything blurry. But with the 149%, it is super choppy.

Thanks so much.

-Alex

[dallanp]

Hi Alex,

Yeah, the slate editor is super laggy for me at 149% too.

Dallan

[marksman123]

Thanks so much for testing that for me...

I thought I was alone on that.

Really appreciate it!

[marksman123]

AUTODESK PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

I MENTIONED THIS IN THE BETA AND SENT TO SUPPORT MONTHS AGO.

WHY ISN'T THIS FIXED!????????

Edited by
Discussion_Admin

[voloshin.gennadii.personal]

Today I decided to reinstall Windows 10 and all software. After installation of each software, I rebooted and checked scaling. If all worked as it is necessary I created the recovery point.

I found the software which it "breaks" scaling. It appeared:

Topaz Plug-ins Bundle for Photoshop (Updated Sept 2018) Winx64

Removal does not solve it a problem. Only kickback on the previous recovery point.

Perhaps I will help someone.
Thanks.

[marksman123]

Thanks so much for posting this. I have given up on this, for like almost a year.

Are you certain that this is the cause of this exact issue? Was your screen in 3ds Max 2019 also all black before (like the attachment?

Reinstalling windows and software will take a long time and just wanna make sure this is fix for the same issue.

thanks a lot man

[voloshin.gennadii.personal]

Yes, I am precisely sure. I solved this problem the whole week. Also found the solution.
It precisely because of Topaz Plug-ins Bundle for Photoshop (Updated Sept 2018) Winx64.
At me, it is established 3ds to max 2018 and 2019. Both break the interface after the Topaz installation.

Please tell, you installed Topaz?

[dallanp]

Wow—great find. I do indeed have this Topaz software installed. I’d like to
find a way to fix the problem without a full blown reload if Win10 at some
point, but great to know how to get it working again. Thank you so much for
finding the cause and posting the report!

Cheers,
Dallan

[voloshin.gennadii.personal]

I am very glad helped you. I worked hard over this problem.
But I did not find the solution how to fix the problem without a full-blown reload Win10.
Thanks.

[dallanp · Accepted solution]

After voloshin.gennadii found the culprit being Topaz, I discovered that Topaz uses Qt (the windowing libraries) which lots of other applications use. I figured this might be the common thread here. Also, I noticed that my Dropbox tray icon never really worked anymore when I'd right-click it and I thought that seemed to happen about the same time as the 3DS problem appeared. I searched for others who had any Dropbox tray icon problems, and voila, someone said that a Qt environment variable was the cause. I checked mine, and yep, I had one too. I deleted the environment variable, rebooted, and now I have Max 2019 running at 200% high-dpi without any compatibility overrides enabled. Hopefully this fixes it for anyone else who is still dealing with it.

The variable I deleted was named:

QT_DEVICE_PIXEL_RATIO   = auto

Dallan

[marksman123]

F@(#&*@#CKing awesome! Thanks so much you two! Deleting the variable worked!

I can't thank you both enough! I've been dealing with this the entire year and literally gave up on it. This is fantastic 🙂

[voloshin.gennadii.personal]

It is great! Yeah, We made it!
Please tell me, what variable you removed?