3ds Max 2026 and Vray 7 Updates on User PC and Server Question

[danishhazwan97]

According to the picture provided, if let's say, I update these updated on 3ds max 2026, other users also have to do the updates? 

Example situation:

If the user does these updates, but on the server didn't do any of the updates. Will it affect the rendering?

Need help on this or verification.

Thank you.

[Casey_H_]

1, 2, and 4 are sign-on and licensing updates, which do not affect file sharing. 3, the shared components, are just that - shared between multiple AD applications. Do you use any shared components? If you update and use any of the shared components, then yes, when they open the file without updating it will say there are missing components.

[Diffus3d]

All servers and dev machines should have the same updates, versions of software, and windows service packs.  

[danishhazwan97]

Hi everyone,

We’re running into an issue with distributed rendering in 3ds Max 2026 and V-Ray 7, and I’d appreciate any insights or suggestions from the community. Here’s the situation:

Setup

Render Farm: We have 7 render node servers: 1 manager and 6 render slaves.

Software: All render nodes have 3ds Max 2026 and V-Ray 7 installed, but no licenses are installed on these nodes. Our user/developer workstations have the necessary 3ds Max and V-Ray licenses.

Previous Setup: With 3ds Max 2025 and V-Ray 6, distributed rendering worked perfectly, utilizing all 6 render slaves without issues.

Current Issue: After upgrading to 3ds Max 2026 and V-Ray 7 (without changing any Backburner or render farm configurations), distributed rendering only uses 3 of the 6 render slaves. The other 3 servers don’t pick up or contribute to the render jobs.

Problem

When a user submits a distributed render job from their licensed workstation, only 3 of the 6 render slaves are utilized. The other 3 servers seem to be ignored and don’t accept or process any render tasks. Since the setup worked fine with the previous version (3ds Max 2025 and V-Ray 6), we’re unsure what’s causing this after the upgrade.

What We’ve Tried

Confirmed that all render nodes have 3ds Max 2026 and V-Ray 7 installed.

Did not reconfigure Backburner, as it was working fine with the previous version.

Ensured network paths and project folders are accessible to all servers (same as before).

Questions

What could be causing the 3 render slaves to not participate in distributed rendering?

Are there specific settings or configurations in V-Ray 7 or 3ds Max 2026 that we need to adjust after the upgrade?

Could this be related to licensing, Backburner, or network settings?

Request for Help

Could anyone share steps to troubleshoot and fix this issue? We’d like to get all 6 render slaves working again for distributed rendering. If there are any specific settings in V-Ray 7, Backburner, or 3ds Max 2026 that we should check, please let us know. Also, if there’s a way to test connectivity or diagnose why those 3 servers aren’t being utilized, that would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions!

[Casey_H_]

I wonder if the same thing happens with Max 2024 or 2025 and VRay 7? Max 2026 is living in the future! It's like a loaf of bread half-baked in the oven.

Is the problem Max, or VRay 7. Test with the older versions of Max, but with VRay 7 in order to narrow down the issue, versions wise. If you can also test Max 2026 with VRay 6, that could give you more info as well.

If testing reveals the same issue across the board, then your best bet is to open a support ticket with Chaos.