Show shaded mat in viewport button makes objects invisible

[Kennet3design]

This happens a lot for me to. Very annoying. I first noticed this in max 2018 but it happens in 2017 also when I checked. To be able to see the textures when this happens i have to change the shading mode to facets instead of default shading.

To fix this I try starting up more max instances until one of them suddenly works. Or close max, delete the enu folder, start max again, open a scene to check if everything is fine which it usually is. Close max again. Then delete the enu folder and use my copied enu folder with all my settings instead and start max again. This works sometimes but not always. 

I encounter this several times a week or even per day sometimes.

I never had this kind of problems before. But now om on new hardware and win 10 instead of win 7. Maybe win 10 and max does not work so great?

I have the same problem on both of my computers. They have identical hardware and operating systems though. Soon I will get a new laptop, it will be interesting to see if the same problem occurs on that.

Windows 10 - 64  Gig RAM - Nvidia quadro P5000 with driver 376.33 - Dual Intel Xeon E5 2687W v4 - 512 Gig SSD 

EDIT: Posts moved and title updated.  -Alfred

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous

Hmmm, it's possible it's in a different location.  Here's how you can check:  Go to Customize->Configure System Paths.  From there you can see the entry "Hardware Shaders Cache".  The file is in the path listed there.  

If you still don't see it, you might have "Show Hidden Files and Folders" Set to off in Windows.  Tick it on and try again.  

Can you please try that for me?  Thanks!

Best Regards,

[doug_bowker_3D]

I've had many of the same issues, and often it also seems to be for no reason at all. My impression is that it's not generally a thing to happen immediately, but usually after having worked on the file for a couple of hours. But it it's not necessarily the scene size that's even an issue. I could have scene with 12 million polys and everything is working just fine, and then be working on a scene with less than a million and I have to resort to Performance Mode to see anything shaded. The next day it might be the opposite.

I suspect it's something of a memory issue, because sometimes it's just a matter of closing the file and Max and restarting. But that in itself can be really inconvenient when you're on a deadline and the scene is huge. For scenes like that each Save/Close/re-Open will take up a lot of time.

I have a GTX 980ti and it's got 6GB of dedicated memory, plus 32GB of RAM so for most scenes I don't get why it wouldn't be able to keep up. I sort of feel like it more often happens with VRay scenes than with Mental Ray scenes, but I haven't taken the time to note it. I'll try and start writing down when it happens and if the renderer makes any difference.

My impression is that it's more of a "session" thing, not a particular scene/file thing in that it's never just one particular scene that is the issue.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply. I will give it a try.

[Anonymous]

Sure will and let you know and some other observations.

Thanks

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @doug_bowker_3D,

Does deleting your shader cache seem to resolve it?  Or does it always turn back on and work fine on each new session for you?   Do you see it happen on any scenes that aren't using 3rd party renderers?  

When I get scenes with the issue I generally cannot repro.  If they also send the shader cache, then I can repro which is why I was thinking it's a shader cache issue.  If you have any scenes with this issue I'd love to check them out.  Thanks for your feedback.

Best Regards,

[sploomis8DNBE]

Just wanted to reply that I was having this issue. Simply restarting the file did not fix the issue, but deleting the cache did resolve it (at least for now).

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Thank you for the update @sploomis8DNBE, I am finding the same.  I appreciate the confirmation.

Best Regards,

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Kennet3design,

I just wanted to let you know I marked one of my posts as a solution to this.  I have confirmation from other thread and personal experience that it works as a workaround for now.  I am not sure if it worked for you, but it is a valid solution for many and so I went ahead and marked it. I just wanted to let you know my intention and reasoning for doing so.  Thanks!

Best Regards,

[Kennet3design]

@Alfred.DeFlaminis

Thanks!

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Kennet3design,

If you find it's not working for you please let me know.  I'll be in the forums as @Diffus3d after today but I'll still do whatever I can to help.

Best Regards,

[omar.m.essam]

Although, in 3ds Max 2017, in Customize > Configure System Paths... it shows that Hardware Shaders Cache are located in C:\Users%username%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2018 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\plugcfg. I couldn't actually find it, but after searching for the name of the file I found it in C:\Users%username%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2018 - 64bit\ENU\plugcfg-In.

Anyway, deleting the file "maxFxoCache.dat" seems to solve the problem, for now. I hope it doesn't come back, it's a really annoying issue 😞

Regards

[Anonymous]

This viewport issue happens to me and my coworker as well. The bandaid fix you provided resolves it for a short while but it comes back often. When will we see a real fix for this problem? It's hard to do texture work when you can't see half of the model and restarting max and reopening files is hurting our productivity. We're running max 2017 sp3 on windows 10, Intel Core i7-7800X CPU, 64gb ram, video cards are dual GeForce GTX 1080 Ti with the latest drivers.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

 Is this happening with any material type for you?  Or just VrayBlendMtls?

[Anonymous]

It's happening with Standard Vray materials.

[Anonymous]

I just stumbled upon this thread today after not finding anything last week and posting my own thread here (knowing exactly what terms to search for is key!):

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/intermittent-viewport-texture-object-display-error-leno...

Anyone have any further things they could add to this situation to get me to a permanent solution?  AJ's suggestion to delete the shader cache file "maxFxoCache.dat" appears to solve the issue for me, but only for a very short time.  I've done it twice this morning already, and the problem came back once after a machine reboot, and again after just about 20 minutes without reboot.

While deleting the shader cache helps - even temporarily - there must be something else at play here causing the issue to occur in the first place.  The machines that have this issue in the thread here all are on Win 10 and, interestingly enough, all seem to have multiple video cards on the system - even if that only just means a laptop with a dedicated Quadro card in addition to the on-board graphics solution.

It's funny, when reading through this thread this morning it's like we're all recounting the issues we're having in almost exactly the same wording.  I was excited when I finally found this thread since I thought I found a solution, but I'm possibly even more discouraged at this point because the problem keeps coming back.

@Kennet3design @Anonymous @Anonymous @omar.m.essam @Anonymous @Diffus3d

[Diffus3d]

Hello @Anonymous,

It's strange one.  Once that file gets corrupted it stays that way until that cache is deleted.  I've done a lot of testing and the big problem is figuring out what causes this.  Which plugins do you use on a day to day basis?  Maybe we can find a common ground.  

Best,
Alfred

[ddesmarais]

Yes we are having the exact same issue on our Windows 10 machine as well in 2018. Does not happen on the Windows 7 machine.

[Anonymous]

THANK YOU!!!

Fixed my issue that I've been just living with for like three months.

[Diffus3d]

I am very glad to hear that @Anonymous!  Thank you for the update and confirmation!  I needed a boost today...  🙂

Best Regards,

Alfred

[luismestre · Accepted solution]

Hi Alfred

I have had the same issue, I followed your instructions and still added a few more steps.

1- Deleted maxFxoCache.dat
2 - Change viewport to user Defined
3- Disable Transparency ( right button of the mouse : user defined --> Materials --> Enable Transparency 

files attached