Missing Materials Error when Rendering

[gravetro000]

When attempting to render a scene, 3Ds will randomly crash with the message "Error loading C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials\Textures\UPI2021Base\UPI\upiconfig.xml" appearing in the error logs. Restarting Max and the render is usually successful, however it ends up crashing 50-100 frames later with the same error. I can't find the file online to download it to my computer. No errors pop up when opening max, or when loading the file.

Any assistance with getting this to work would be greatly appreciated, and it is really frustrating to have to restart the render every few hours.

Full error log is attached below

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer

[RobH2]

I really have no idea what this .xml file is looking for but it seems to be texture related. Do you have another material you can put on the object and see if the error goes away? Use a completely different kind of material.

If that solves it, then maybe the material you are using has some error in it. Maybe then make a new material by hand to try to have an error free material that looks like the original one but that does not crash. 

This is just a guess on how to start diagnosing and fixing. 

[gravetro000]

I don't even know which texture is causing it at all. And it only crashes after successfully rendering a frame. I never get the "Missing Maps" pop-up, the frame it renders does not appear to be missing any textures at all. I tried running the installer again, it installed some hotfix which did not fix it, and I have the Autodesk Material Library installed as well.

I can find plenty of references and downloads to that file, but nothing is from 2021.

I have the 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 versions in the textures folder, and this page [1] appears to allow me to download the 2020 library, but I cannot find the 2021 library anywhere. 

[1]: https://help.autodesk.com/view/INFMDR/ENU/?guid=IWGettingStarted_Install_ToInstallAutodeskMaterialLi...

[RobH2]

Are you running out of RAM? What are your computer specs?

[gravetro000]

I have an Intel i9-10900K CPU @ 3.7GHz, 32GB of memory, and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU that I just updated drivers on last week.

As for RAM usage, I don't recall what it was sitting at when trying to render the scene it gets stuck on, however rendering a scene with less stuff (That it's having no issues with), RAM usage is about 33%.

[RobH2]

I think you might be running out of RAM. That will often crash Max. Believe it or not, 32BG is not a lot of RAM for Max especially with complex scenes. I always recommend 64GB as a minimum if you want to use Max in an efficient and frustration-free manner. 

For instance, I have a very simple scene open right now and I'm using 34GB of RAM (see attached). The OS will often use 12GB just to open Windows. That only leaves 20GB of your 32GB for other programs. I have 128GB of RAM and I run out now and again even with that much RAM. 

[Diffus3d]

Most renderers have a way to limit RAM usage, might be necessary if low ram is the problem.  Doesn't sound like it is if you're only using 33%.  

The 2021 material libraries install by default with 3dsmax according to this page.  That means if they aren't installed that the main installers should have an option to install them.  If you can't find them anywhere, try the main 3dsmax installer.  Or, you might also find them in your Autodesk account as additional downloads.  This post seems to indicate they can be found there.  (If that's still listed for you in your account page, otherwise the main installers are the best place to look.)  

Best Regards,