Max 2017 crashing

[ben]

Hi guys

We recently jumped up to 2017 once the service pack came out. It is a nightmare to work with for production and probably have to go back to 2014 at this rate.

It is completely pot luck chance (with high probability) if max will crash in the following cases:

1. when submitting via backburner. Requires a complete shutdown of max and reload the scene to work.
2. having more than one instance of max running at once will generally cause a crash when you want to open any other scenes on those instances. Requires a complete shutdown of max to stop this.
3. random crash when working (I know Max has always just randomly crashed)

Anyone else experiencing this? I've installed on all workstations and all do the same. It is unbelievably annoying especially after all the stability hype Autodesk drummed up regarding this release. 

Thanks

[dominique.bouthillette]

Hi @ben

Sorry to hear about this happening on your workstations. So far I have had pretty good luck with Max 2017 on my home workstation, sans crashing. Could you maybe tell me what the specs are for the machines/workstations you're currently using and if all graphics cards have updated drivers? 2014 to 2017 is a larger upgrade in software, so I'm curious if perhaps some hardware may not be as compatible with the more graphics intensive capabilities of 2017.

If you have the chance please submit any CER logs (Crash Error Report) to Autodesk. Those can be pretty helpful in deciphering what might be the cause of a crash as well. If you post the report number here, I will go in and take a look for you. (After submitting a log it should open your browser and read something like "Thank you for sending your error report CER_133659986 to Autodesk." I would just need the number listed.) 

Meanwhile, you might try switching your Display Drivers in Max 2017, to see if this will correct the issue. You can do this by going to Customize > Preferences > Viewports tab > Display Drivers > Choose Driver and then switch the default Nitrous Direct3D 11 driver to Nitrous Direct3D 9. Then restart Max to implement the changes. 

If possible to upload an affected file for me to test, that would be great. 

Thanks! 🙂

[jon.bell]

Hi Ben,

We seem to have two (possibly related) issues here -- multiple open copies of 3ds Max 2017 are crashing, and you're getting crashes when submitting to Backburner. The first issue is known to our developers, we have a defect logged for it, and it's a high-priority fix.

In the meantime, are you experiencing these crashes when you work with only one copy of Max 2017 open at a time on your machines? Can you work around this issue for the time being by limiting the number of simultaneous open copies of max on each machine? Are there specific scenes that seem to crash Max more so than other scenes?

In addition, when you're submitting shots to Backburner, do you have multiple copies of 3ds Max 2017 open as well, and are submitting from one (or more) copies? (A fix for the above issue may also fix this Backburner issue, if so.)

Thank you again for your time and patience on this, and I look forward to hearing from you. If I get additional updates from our developers on this, I'll also let you know.

Best regards,

Jon A. Bell

Autodesk Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am also getting these errors with 3DS Max 2017 (SP1). 

Issue 1 - If I have 1 or more copies of Max open then open another copy and open a file within that window, it will crash that instance of Max. But if I go into windows explorer and double click on a max file, it will open fine. This is seems to be across many different scenes, simple to complex.

Issue 2 - Open a max file from windows explorer (in the habit of not opening a file from within max because of issue 1), issue any minor command, submit to backburner and max crashes (and this is with only 1 copy of max open). If I open a max file and NOT touch anything except send to backburner it will not crash. 

Gemma

[david]

Hi there

Yes, this is exactly what is happening to my end as well.  Its word for word!  I am getting Autodesk to look at my submitted crash error logs to see what the problem is. Ill let you know if there is some helpful information when I hear back from Autodesk.

Cheers

[Anonymous]

I run into this as well, makes it impossible to work with Max 2017, mainly due to the fact there's no backburner network rendering in conjunction to long saving times and random crashing using data operators in particle systems. I've also experienced the crashing instances issue, thought it was my scene at first, till I rolled back to 2014 to find all is good with the scene.

As for the VERY LONG times of saving scenes, as well as autosaves that takes ages (1 minute up to several minutes ). For comparison, that same scene saved on Max 2014 takes up to 20 sec. At first I thought max crashes, only as I check the size of the temp saved file, I see it keeps increasing rapidlyI realize it's actually in a very long process of saving the file.

[Anonymous]

Could any recommend any production reliable max version after 2014 ? Does 2015 or 16 count as reliable ? 

[whitebirchstudios]

Made me chuckle, sorry. Each version is half backed, I am sorry to say. Most people would say that the last stable version was 3DS MAX 2014 and many people have stayed there. People I know, that didn't stay on 2014, skipped 2015 and went into 2016. Other than my checkerboard nightmare, 2017 has been pretty good. Again, for me, 2016 was a nightmare.

[lightcube]

I have not moved to 2017 yet but largely because the team I work for is synched mainly on 2016. I feel that 2016 is generally superior to 2014-2015 (better viewport performance and speed increases). When 2016 crashes on me it is 99% likely due to me testing a new custom function or tool that I'm writing/testing. I only open 2015 and older to test if functions are backwards compatible... otherwise I'd not go backwards for many reasons.

[Anonymous]

I'm having the same problem here..if anyone found any solution at all, please, please let me know. I'm a company IT and i've done everything possible that IT can do but my users are still having this problem.. is very exhausting, i have over 200 users and everyone of them had this problem at least once, and this is the busiest time of the year in the company, this can't be happening.

3DSMAX, WE NEED SOLUTION ASAP!!!!!

[alexnode]

I downgraded to 2016, which i find a very good version (i have very few crashes (one per week) and from things that i kind expect). I upgraded from 2015 after 2016 sp3. 2017 is promising but dreadful and it reminds me max of the old days. It took me one full day to downgrade max from 2017 to 2016 for a workstation and 5 slaves. The plugins are the problem. I worked for two days for free for my client because of the delays created from 2017, that's 3 days in total. 

 Make them all to save their files for 2016. get the removeMissingPlugins01.ms to stop irritating messages about art renderer missing when you open the converted files. and start installing 2016 . You will save so much time in the long run. 

 Autodesk is totally loosing it. I am sure the programmers are working on 2018 now on top of an unfinished version, i am afraid that the will kill the whole max brand if they don't built things properly. The problem is becoming worse since nobody upgrades at least until 6 months after release, i will never upgrade until a year after release at least.  

 Which makes the idea of a subscription legally challenging !

 I have to admit that the support has been improved greatly, with Alfred and the rest but the developers are the ones who can actually fix things.  

[jon.bell]

Hey guys,

Thank you for your comments and concerns about 3ds Max 2017 and Windows 10. (I'm escalating some of these comments straight to our developers and Max product management team.) For the record, these Windows 10 instability problems have been an ongoing issue not just for Autodesk, but for other software companies as well.

In the meantime, I wanted to note that we've just released a security fix for 3ds Max 2017. Before you install it, please note the following:

All Windows® 10 updates must be current prior to installing this security fix and the ucrtbase.dll located in %WINDIR%\System32\ must be version 10.0.10586.0 or higher.

Finally, if you're doing network rendering with Backburner and you install this security fix for your Manager machine(s), make sure you also deploy it on every other 3ds Max 2017 installation on your render nodes as well. (Please check your 3ds Max 2017 version numbers on your machines in the Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features; the Max versions need to be identical for network rendering.)

Best regards,

Jon A. Bell

Autodesk Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Is anyone having issues with Max 2017 crashing at render time?  I cannot figure out what is causing the problem.  I'm using the same vray renderer and the same additional plugins in all files, but only some render while others crash as soon as I hit the render button.  Whether I save a Max 2016 file as Max 2017 or start in a fresh Max 2017 file and import in the older file, I still get random crashing...with crashes happening more often than actual rendering.  This is absolutely unacceptable.  Autodesk just plain is no longer capable of making a stable program.  At this point the program should be free.  How can you ask people to pay for this??  Max 2017 is completely unusable.  I just have to go back to 2016 and stick with it.  I find it sad that Autodesk is not able to help with any issues I have.  I ended up having to find a solution on my own.  Pathetic Autodesk.  

[jon.bell]

Cstack,

You mention that you're using "the same vray renderer and the same additional plugins in all files, but only some render while others crash as soon as I hit the render button."

What plugins are you using? Are you getting error messages when you load certain files? Please note that any plugins for 3ds Max 2016 need to have been recompiled by the manufacturer for Max 2017, since the SDK changed from 2016 to 2017. (Max 2015 plugins work in 2016, however.)

In addition, have you installed the latest version of VRay for 3ds Max 2017?

Please let us know, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,

Jon A. Bell

Autodesk Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm using Vray 3.4, Forest Pack Pro and VP Walls & Tiles (for material tiling).  All are the latest updates.  Yes, I just recently updated 3ds Max 2017 with the last update.  Even when I eliminate Forest Pack trees and assign an all white material to the objects (eliminating the Walls & TIles textures) it still crashes at render time.  Sometimes in a new file I can import 2016 files and render fine. Once I save the file in  2017 and reopen, I can no longer render.  It just crashes.  I have not found any common element causing the crash.  It seems very random but happens most of the time. There is also a terrible problem with the checkerboard effect on all objects in the viewports.  

[jon.bell]

Hi,

If you import your Max 2016 objects into a clean 3ds Max 2017 scene, assign a flat gray Standard material to everything, then re-save the scene, reload it and render it with the Scanline renderer, does it still crash? Does it crash if you do this with mental ray?

I've seen ongoing issues with VRay and iToo Tools plugins (especially when trying to send scenes out with Backburner), and it makes me think this is happening in our scene as well. If you're not getting crashes with Scanline and/or mental ray when using Standard materials in your scene, then it makes me think there's an issue with your VRay renderer and/or materials on your objects.

Please let us know what your testing shows, and we'll continue it from there. Thanks!

Jon A. Bell

Autodesk Technical Support

[alexnode]

I experience what is being described with a beta version of vray (nightly builds) before downgraded back to 2016, It was a 3.4 something, that was two months ago after the latest 2017 max sp. I used the nightly builds in the first place to see if they fixed some other problems but no luck.  

 Try chaos group forums too they could help.

[Anonymous]

So I did not get any crashing when rendering in a new 2017 file with my 2016 model imported and assigning a standard and mental ray basic material.  I then assigned a basic vray material and also rendered with no crashing.  (Though, I thought yesterday I did receive a crash with a basic vray material.)  I imported elements with vray textured materials and there was no crashing.  I then imported a few objects with a Walls & Tiles material which rendered fine.  After saving the file and reopening, the same file crashed at render time.  I reopened the same file and  tried rendering again and there was no crash.  I have a few other files that I tested with these Walls & Tiles materials which repeatedly rendered fine with no crashing.  Maybe they cause problems only some of the time?  I don't get it.  The crash just seems very random to me. I will check with both Viz Park (creators of Walls & Tiles) and Chaos Group.

[whitebirchstudios]

Try removing Walls & Tiles. I can almost guarantee crashing will stop.

--

Thanks

[image: Whitebirch Studios]

Bobby Parker / Architectural Illustrator
[email protected] / 2188206812

Whitebirch Studios
31566 Green Scene Dr
Breezy Point, MN 56472
http://www.bobby-parker.com

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My current hardware setup: Dell Precision T7910 36-Core Dual E5-2696 v3 Max
3.8GHz 128GB RAM EVGA GeForce GTX 1080/980 Ti 06G-P4-4995-KR 6GB

[Anonymous]

I was just reading on the VIZ PARK forum that people are having similar problems.  Unfortunately I use Walls & Tiles in all my projects......