3ds Max 2022- 2025 4k UI

[eodeo]

I could use help setting 3ds Max to use proper UI scaling on Windows 10. Some menus, text and options look all wrong when not using old 1080p @ 100% scaling.  I'd like to continue to use 4k @ 225% scaling like I can in every other application. I hoped that Max 2025 would fix this by default, but clearly it doesn't. It's no better than Max 2022 in this.

In material editor, for example, I can zoom into materials really well so I can easily read all the small fonts, which is very handy. No such option @4k.  Here are two examples of the same scene, maximally zoomed in material editor at 1080p and 4k:

Please notice fonts and options at the right bottom of the image, in map properties, look all mangled @ 4k. 3rd option "Scratches" that has value of 0.3 is completely obscured by improper scaling of UI. Please help. Thank you.

@ 4k@ 1080p

[RobH2]

I think your desire to use 225% scaling is the issue. 4K monitors seem to work best with scaling at 150% or below from what I know.  

[eodeo · Accepted solution]

Thank you. I tried @150% and it looks less terrible than at 225%, but everything is way too small to be usable, including 3ds Max. The scaling is still clearly wrong.

I tried to find a post I found earlier where Autodesk stated that they fixed scaling @ 4k from Max 2018 onwards. I didn't find it, but I did find a solution here:
https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-fix-4K-view...

More specifically in this image, within that article:
https://help.autodesk.com/sfdcarticles/img/0EMKf000006KaUT

It works. Even the 3ds Max startup looks proper and not tiny now. The same is true for Max 2022.

[RobH2]

I'm glad turning off the "Blurry" setting  fix it for you. Thanks for posting the links for others. 

[eodeo]

Even though this fixed the most obvious problems, it created a new set of its own. First, many menus are now way too big. Material editor as a whole, for example. Moreover, when I minimize these (sometime) oversized floating windows, they just completely disappear. The don't go to the bottom of the screen, like they're supposed to. They just disappear. The only way to bring them back is to minimize Max itself and then restore it. That also restores any minimized floating windows.

I guess this kind of bad UI is preferable to the default bad UI , but its still not a real fix. It's just a less bad UI. The only real solution it appears is to not use 4k displays... and I find that really weird, now that 4k displays are so common, especially among people who do visual art, like 3d. I can't believe that the default UI in Max 25 is so bad and that the fix is not a real fix. Is there any way we can alert Autodesk to this? Are they really not aware or they don't care about it? This is not a minor inconvenience.

In fact, after thinking about it, I'm reverting this "fix". Poor UI elements I can handle well enough. Disappearing minimized render window, for example is a big deal. It completely brakes my workflow. That annoys me far more than the bad UI I originally complained about. I guess this is why that behavior is the default. That one is less bad...

[RobH2]

I hear your frustration but I have say, it all works perfectly for my 4K monitors. I have 3 of them, all set to the same settings and Max and every other program I have, once dialed in with the right Windows and NVidia settings, work very well. No issues in any way. 

So, I thinking there still must be some setting/settings on your machine causing the problem. If it was a massive failure on Max's UI design, 1000's of people would be screaming about it and that's just not happening. So obviously there are 1000s of users who are not having issues. That points back to something on your machine that's likely contributing to your issues. 

I had one issue with HDR Light Studio's latest release where the app that opened had type that was so tiny I just couldn't read it. No normal monitor settings or Windows settings solved it. But they released an 'Environment Varible' piece of script that solved it. 

Maybe you can research Google to see if there are some 'Environment Variables' that people having 4K monitor issues are using?  I still believe that your issue is related to some "still not quite right settings" on your machine. 

[eodeo]

I have a fairly decent PC. 6c/12t Intel CPU with Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU, 32gb RAM on a clean install of Windows 10 with the latest drivers. Everything else works fine. Only 3ds Max has poor UI and this is not new. It started as soon as I got this computer. Problem is identical in Max 2017 (I just checked), it persisted in Max 2022, my daily Max, and now it continues identically in Max 2025. The problem with UI is identical in both Max 2017 and 2025. Autodesk posted that they fixed UI scaling with Max 2018+, but that update, clearly never reached me... And their posted solution isn't that good...

I guess it's nice that more people don't have this problem, but it doesn't really help me 😄 When I'm serious about doing 3d, I change the resolution to 1080p. That puts scaling to 100% and that fixes the problem, but it does nothing to address native 4k resolution problem.

[RobH2]

Yea, not doubt your specs are good. Hopefully someone can help you. It's not just Max, I have several programs where the developers talk about how incredibally hard it is to have everything work properly on 4K monitors. I'm not a coder but apparently it's a real problem. 

I'm sorry you are having issues. I hope someone can jump in here who has been faced with your issue and has solved it. Like I mentioned, there are a huge number of people who don't have issues, so you can't just slam Autodesk and Max for it 100%. Many developers had a lot of growing pains when 4K monitors came out. I went through months of frustration a few years ago myself, so I get it. I really do. 

You don't mention what your monitor or monitors are. Maybe visit their website for a forum and post there. For a minute treat it like it's the monitor's fault and not Max or Windows. Maybe there will be a solution. I'm just trying to help you diagnose and be creative about solutions. 

I'd also look at some Windows forums. Maybe Windows stores monitor scaling parameters in some kind of file that is corrupt or is not updating. If you can purge those and start scaling over, maybe it will take and be correct. Again, just trying to think outside the box. Something is causing it. The hard part is to figure out what. 

Lastly, maybe start a new post and word the subject differently. Normally we aren't suppose to have duplicate posts but it seems to be only you and me in here and I'm obviously not much help. When users see a lot of posts in a thread they often assume that it's being taken care of. Maybe a new post that has "no" answers will get some new eyes on it. I won't jump in on that one.