Xref's Not Rendering due to Hair & Fur Modifier

[Anonymous]

We are having issues rendering Xrefs when a certain piece of geometry is in the scene.  When in the scene Xrefs do not render at all (although show up in the viewport), and when the mesh is deleted the Xrefs render.   After some troubleshooting it appears a "Hair & Fur" modifier seems to be preventing the Xrefs from being rendered.

Has this happened to anyone else/anybody know a fix?

Max 2020 Update 1 / Vray Next

[Diffus3d]

I'm not sure Hair/Fur is supported with XRef.  Your best bet might be to do a pointcache instead and apply the Hair/Fur in the render scene.  

Best Regards,

[irishman_team_kilber]

you can use Hair and fur with Xref as i am using 3ds max 9 from what i remember max takes two render one of the scene and the second render it loads the halr but they should of update this by now

Anyway here is a video i cannot you the video link cos it's not on youtube. here is the link https://vimeo.com/165373833

you need to download the Ornatrix https://ephere.com/plugins/autodesk/max/ornatrix/

[Diffus3d]

In that case make sure you go to Render Menu->Environment->Effects and add the Hair and Fur modifier in the master scene.  

Best Regards,

[irishman_team_kilber]

I also found this thread on the chaosgroup community but this thread was in 2003 but not sure if they have fixed the bug https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/v-ray-for-3ds-max-forums/v-ray-for-3ds-max-problems/51579-hair-f...

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I'm not sure if i have been clear enough regarding the situation.  The mesh with the H&F modifier is native to the scene, the problem is its preventing any Xref scenes from rendering.

So far the solution has been to simply convert the H&F to a mesh and proxy the object due to the large poly count.

Even with this work around i'm still wondering why this would happen and even digging through more forums and the responses provided its still unclear.

[Diffus3d]

Ah I see @Anonymous, maybe it's using too much RAM?  The first step is to figure out if it's the Hair and Fur itself or the geo which is causing the problem.  If you copy/paste the Hair Fur modifier onto a sphere, does it then render?

What is the rendering mode of the hair?  (Mr Prim, Geo, Native.)   Is there a big modifier stack below the Hair and Fur?

Best Regards,  

[Anonymous]

I've ran some tests and it doesnt appear to be a RAM issue.  The scene is topping out at around 50% ram usage with/without the Xref.  Is a know Max error to drop Xrefs when certain RAM limitations are met?

I have instanced the modifier and also attempted a fresh modifier on a basic sphere and the problem still occurs, and have tried all three different rendering modes with the same issue.

The modify stack on the object on had an EP and a Mirror modifier, which i have since collapsed with no success.

[irishman_team_kilber]

if you delete the xref does the scene render? http://forums.cgarchitect.com/38989-xref-scenes-rendering-vray-problem.html

[Anonymous]

The scene itself renders fine, with the H&F in the scene its the Xref that doesnt render at all.  When the Obj is deleted the Xref then renders.

[irishman_team_kilber]

i would throw your scene over to chaosgroup and give them all the infomation and see if they can recreate the problem or even upload your scene here and if there is no copyright issue. if there is you can email @Diffus3d he is a former autodesk empolyee and he may take a look at the file when he has the time,

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help guys.  Fortunately the work around seems to be working fine and its not massively time consuming, i'm more just concern this issue will happen again in the future and I would like to know why its happening.

Looks like i'm just going to have to chalk this one up to a mystery unfortunately as i cannot distribute the files.

Cheers,

Alex

[yvesadam4016]

@Anonymous  What's the workaround you mentioned ?

we've been running into the same issue still in max 2020

[Anonymous]

Apologies it was a while ago and I cannot remember exactly but I believe I ended up using a second pass for the H&F object.  I set up a 'dummy' scene within the XREF with the effected Geo&Lighting and render selected the object and comped it in post.

[Anonymous]

I just had an X-ref scene which would not render though it was visible in the viewport. This thread is the only thing I found that explained it, so thanks!  It was strange because the X-ref was rendering earlier, then wouldn't render though I reloaded, replaced it etc. So what changed? I had merged in an object with hair and fur modifier! I tried hiding it and that didn't work, but deleting it did. Fortunately, this object doesn't show in the view that requires the x-ref. 

[carlaLKN8E]

Hi guys! I have been experiencing the same issue now with Max 2023. I have a Hair and Fur pillow in my scene and a couple of Xrefs for the scene but the Xrefs simply wont render if the pillow is also in the scene. I have to physically merge my Xrefs into my main scene in order for everything to render together which is quite a pain...

I cant seem to see the solution on this thread. Any solution to this issue yet?