3ds max 2024 New Slate Material Editor bug

[krll_3dsmax]

The "Show material in the viewport" button on the SME Main ToolBar does not work, there are no Realistic and Shaded display modes

[fixonu4]

I wonder if there will be a fix for 3ds Max 2024?

[CoOpArchviz]

I hope so. This fix is literally the only reason for me to go to 2025. 

[RobH2]

@CoOpArchviz  Are you sure you don't have some local issue? Have you done an ENU reset? Giuseppe gave a great workaround and acknowledged the issue needed some attention, but I can't reproduce the issue. 

I tested Max 2024 and can't reproduce the SME issue. It works fine and I attached a video. If this was a major bug there would be 100s of posts concerning it and there just aren't. Can you list the mitigation tasks you've tried so that maybe it can be determined if it's global or just an issue for you and a few other users?

There are a lot of reasons to embrace Max 2025. The biggest one is the 'Retopology' is improved significantly. There are speed increases and many other beneifits to it as well. 

[infoTP6WE]

so much work you put in but you still don't understand. no problem, move on.

[fixonu4]

My God, man, I personally explained to you how to reproduce this problem. Have you forgotten everything already? And this is broken in the simplest example, in more complex materials this problem is even more annoying.

[simon.kotowiczN3URV]

In the politest way possible, I too have explained in detail how to reproduce the problem.  Can the people who don't have this problem just move away, please, as you're adding noise and hindering any progress over the very real issue that is crippling some people's workflows and limiting their ability to make a living.  We don't come to the forum to argue, we really don't.  We're here to report issues we're having in hope that someone wise or important reads and provides a useful solution.

Also, I don't care about nor need retopolgy - it's simply not exciting or useful to me and my work.  We all use 3DS Max for very different reasons and within a miriad of industries.  For my work, I haven't seen any real improvements to 3DS Max since my favourite 2010 release running on Windows 7.  I'd still be using it now, if I could, but Autodesk turned off the license server for 2010, which forced me into a subscription.  For the subscription fee Autodesk have said it will help them fund the improvements of their software.  Please, please, please let us have our say of what improvements we need.

All the best to my fellow 3DS Max creatives!  And good luck to each of you getting your 3DS Max issues ironed out once and for all.

[altshift.de]

I totally agree. This feature is amazingly easy to reproduce. I just need
this for my daily business and can't use Max 2024. My whole studio can't.
And sorry, I see so much ignorance in this thread. Wow. Please just fix
this issue for your paying customers. And to be honest: I don't believe,
that this will be any different in Max 25... And now please don't post
something about any other cool features. This thread is about one issue.
Period. Just take users and customers serious - that would be nice.

[CoOpArchviz]

To be clear, this issue is about the display of INDIVIDUAL BITMAPS, and not the "Show Shaded Materials in Viewport" option. 

The issue arrives when the following conditions are met: 
1) The bitmap is used in a material that is within a Multi/Sub-material
2) The same bitmap is used on different materials (instanced)
This is not some small issue: Most materials, when you're working on a reasonably advanced 3dsmax level, use this kind of setup. What RobH2 showed in his video obviously works, but that was never the problem. 

I will include a video to show exactly what is going on. 

Another irritating issue, is that all Max versions prior to 2024 had a little red tab showing up for the bitmap currently showing. That was simply removed. It was needed to clearly show which bitmap was being displayed. Guess the devs have no idea about how we, the active users, actually work with their software. 

On a side note, I think the reason more people don't post about things like this is because they have given up trying to get issues resolved, or simply can't find these forums! I think ADSK should be concerned about the current state of the software. More and more people are turning to Blender - even in hardcore Max-communities. If ADSK want to stay relevant, they need to match Blender's development. The 2025 update is a joke. 

[RobH2]

Good enough. I read and try to assist with 100s of posts a week. Sometimes I miss details or I revisit older ones and don't fully recall all of the previous details. But since I can't seem to reproduce it, I do hope that it gets some attention and you get a fix. I hope you reported it as a bug. 🙂

[CoOpArchviz]

Have you even seen my video, Rob? Go through the exact steps as I have, and see if you can't reproduce it.

[giuseppe.schiralli]

The problem with Show Shaded Material in Viewport is fixed in Max 2025. The issue was not fixed in the 2024.2.1 Hot Fix.

The bug is on the menu that allows to chose which material should be affected by the change, that is not triggered in Max 2024 and its updates, only if the same bitmap is applied to 2 materials, or if a Multi/sub material is involved.

[imhill]

Please! Please release a 2024.2.2 fix! I don't want to upgrade to 2025 because some third-party plug-ins I must use every day are not compatible with 2025.

[fixonu4]

Will there be a fix for this bug for 3ds max 2024?

[objectdreams]

Please, guys, we all are asking you to release 2024 max with the fixed bug! Obrigado! 

[imhill]

Forgive my rude, to put it bluntly, it's hard to believe that the development team behind such an important software in the 3D industry is so lazy and so inefficient at fixing bugs!!! It really, really shocked me!!! 

Just take a look at Chaos, who developed V-Ray. They usually reply to the forum within 24 hours, and release DailyBuild to fix bugs every day. What are you guys doing every day? 

[simon.kotowiczN3URV]

A fix for 2024 for be really welcomed.  Because 3DS Max doesn't update the base features, we rely on plugins.  Some of the plugins I use are not available for Max 2025.

And I offer a little observation to the materials not showing.  In VRAY, they only show in a camera view on my system.  Yesterday I was pulling my hair out as all my materials in viewport stopped showing and nothing would bring them back...

...until I switched to my camera viewport and all the materials appeared.  Weird.

[lina_an]

подскажите ,вы решили свою проблему? такой же косяк, может проще установить новый макс?)

[fixonu4]

You can't solve it. This should be done by the developers. You can put the 25th one, but there are problems there.

[katserge]

what's the new problems?

[objectdreams]

What is the new problems, o my Gosh...!?!?!?