How I can find the materials that are missing textures

[Anonymous]

I try to find the materials that are missing textures, not the texture itself as asset tracking provides that. But it doesn't give me the name of the material that is missing the texture.  I have tried also the bitmap/photometric paths but apart of being confusing it doesn't give me the same list of missing textures than asset tracking or the info window that appears when opening the max file.

[Fahad_ALAsmari]

Try to add all project files in one folder MAX file and Materials and texture etc.... everything you need for this project for example folder named "Modeling city project" but everything inside it and run the MAX file that you saved in your project folder named "Modeling city project"

I hope this helped you.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, but what I try is not to find the missing textures. I try to highlight the name of the materials used in the project and the slate material editor that are missing textures. I would expect asset tracking would provide this function.

For example asset tracking highlights the missing textures, but when I select the missing texture in asset tracking I have not way to know what material is using this texture.

This can be useful as some times I know for sure I'm not using that texture in the project but I need to know what material is using it as it could be wrongly assigned.

[Fahad_ALAsmari]

Hmmmm.... I have no idea sorry but it always better to check Autodesk help 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for trying

Anybody else can help? It is difficult to believe that nobody need to know what materials are using the the missing textures 

[PROH]

Hi. Well of course we do need to find the materials. The method I use is just not very efficient, so was looking forward to see if someone would come up with an easy and quick method. Since nobody has done so yet, I'll tell you how I do it:

I open the material browser, scrolls down to Scene, tells it to show hierachy and looks for black bitmap icons with the names of the missing bitmaps. If they are not present here, it'll mean that the materials are not being used in the scene, but is still present somewhere - most likely in the material editor (could be in the compact one even when you use slate). In such case clean the material editor and the warning will end.

As already it's not very efficient, especially not when having a large amount of materials.

Hope it helps

[darawork]

Hi,

I use http://www.colinsenner.com/scripts/relink-bitmaps this to relink / list missing bitmaps.

Not sure how helpful it will be to compile a list of missing materials, but it finds them very well.

[darawork]

Two Kudos, One visible trace... something tells me Colin is about to receive an international acquisition phone call.

[CAMedeck]

If I had a nickel for every person I sent over to Colin for his script... well, I guess I'd give them all to Colin!

[JezEmin]

The original poster asked a question which I am also looking for the answer.

The question wasn't how to relink a missing bitmap, but how to find out WHAT material is missing the bitmap.

Why do I need to know that ?

Because I have a scene which has a ton of objects in it, a ton of materials in it a missing bitmap (which I do NOT have) and would therefore want to know WHAT material wants this missing bitmap so I can study that material and maybe replace the missing bitmap with something else.

Colin's excellent script is something I use every single day but it is of no use in this scenario.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis · Accepted solution]

Hello @JezEmin,

Tricky.  I'm sure a solution could be scripted if someone wanted to, but the method I've used in the past is to go to the Utilities menu-> Bitmap/Photometric paths.  Then click "Edit Resources".  Press Select Missing Files, then Info.  It'll show you which object those missing files materials are applied to.  Then you can pick it off and investigate.  If there is an easier way I am not aware of it. 

Jon suggested the following:  Use the old style map browser and set it to Show Maps only and By Object.  Then you can look in the asset tracker for the missing names and find the object they are applied to in the map browser.  Also a viable method.  

It would be cool to right click a texture in the asset tracker and have a selection for "Show materials with map".  Worth a Feature Request I'd say. 

EDIT: Spelling. 

Best Regards,

[JezEmin]

Thanks Alfred for your reply.

I must admit, I never use the Asset Tracker - silly question, but am I missing out !?

[JezEmin]

I think PROH's solution is the best (for me anyway).

I don't use the Asset Tracker - I find it very antiquated (the thumbnails look terrible in it !).

Anyway, I also can't give PROH Kudos for his answer - I really think that's the only (best) way.  

Thanks 🙂

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Understood @JezEmin.  I love the asset tracker for batch updating paths but there are some 3rd party scripts and tools which extend this functionality or replace it.  

Best Regards,

[JezEmin]

Thanks Alfred,

I've found the answer 🙂

https://3d-kstudio.com/product/filepathfinder-pro/

This will find you the Material which has missing bitmaps 🙂

(I am in no way affiliated with the script - just helping out 🙂 ).

[Swordslayer]

If all you want is to find out scene nodes that are missing a bitmap (not necessarily material related, can be modifier bound as well), here's a free and simple alternative:

select (for obj in objects collect
(
	::missing = #()
	enumerateFiles obj (fn addMissing _ = append missing _) #missing
	if missing.count == 0 then dontCollect else obj
))

This will select all such nodes in the scene. If you replace for obj in objects with for obj in selection, it will only take into account currently selected nodes.

[Anonymous]

Hello Alfred.

Asset tracker and material explorer should be integrated to show missing materials/maps (and their objects/modifiers/events).

Extended with functionality from script "collect asset", ability to replace maps or materials - missing or incompatible. Cleaning scene.

Replacing materials by drag'n'drop from slate editor and regular expressions (for textures names).

Texture nodes (also in slate editor) must have a fast access button to open the directory containg file and select it (windows explorer). And another one to open preview window.

Missing maps in slate editor must have an indicator.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Nice work @JezEmin and @Swordslayer!  Good stuff!

@Anonymous, if you want your ideas to been logged and seen by development, please submit Feature Requests for them.  I like your ideas and you have a lot of them, but at the end of the day I am a support person and not a developer.  I do want you to be heard and the feature requests are the best way to do that.  Thanks and have a great weekend!

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Alfred, I've added an idea about [ ideas >categories] into feature requests. Hope some day it will gather enough voices to enhance discussion there.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-ideas/organize-forum-ideas-into-categories-by-interface-or-pu...

Thank you for your support and professionalism

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

You got my vote @Anonymous, and thank you for the kind words.  You are full of good ideas so keep 'em coming in other threads too!

Best Regards,