Can't assign texture map to (reference) plane

[homyakchik2QPJV]

Okay. I'll bite. What am I doing wrong?

Max 2022 educational. Newby here. I'm working my way through a couple of tutorials on poly modeling with planar reference images. The instructions seem simple. Set up a plane. Rotate it to face the object (making sure I can see the Normals side). M to bring up the Material Editor (or Renderer|Material Editor|Compact Material Editor [I don't know how to use Slate yet]; I've done it both ways). The material editor pops up. Initially when I clicked on the "Physical Material" I brought up the Material/Map browser. I didn't see "Bitmap" (which is weird, 'cause I remember seeing it when I tried learning Max a couple of years ago). I used the search box up top. NOW: the first time (and second) I did this, "Bitmap" showed up ('way to the bottom of the browser). Double-clicked it. Was able to select first my front reference image and then my side image. The two materials are displaying in the Material Editor. But I can't drag and drop the material on my plane (or the poly box next to it, for that matter). I can't get "Assign material to selected object" to come up anywhere, either, so while I've technically got my materials, I can't apply them. Third time (trying to get the details for this help request), "bitmap" isn't a choice at all; it doesn't even show up when I type in a search. Much puzzlement here. (Late addition: I found "bitmap" [in Maps | General] again, but drag-and-drop still doesn't work] again.) Not a one of the tutorials lists any step further than assigning the bitmap and dragging it to the plane. Help?

Found a post where someone tried a different approach to assigning an image to a plane. Didn't work for me; I didn't have all the choices the OP ran through. (There may be a slew of other similar questions and answers, but they're not showing up in search results.)

Max 2022 (educational)
-tried with both the Scanline and Arnold renderers. Initially Arnold presented me with a BUNCH more options; now, not so much
Win10 (sadly)
NVidia GPU

Have restarted windows and Max both (repeatedly); nada.

Thanks!

Davey

[montezumaV]

As a newbie here also, I don't know for sure would it work for you or not, cuz normally, i just drag the file to the plane as you do (the plane should have the same height & width as the image).

In Material editor,  Create a standard material, drag your Img file into this, it will create a bitmap. Link this map to the material's Diffuse map.  In the material parameter area, next to diffuse, there's a small box, which shows m or M. m means a map is attached but not activated. At the bottom of that material parameter area, drop down the maps. If the map you attach is unticked, it's m. Otherwise, it's M. Then select the plane, assign material to Obj.

[homyakchik2QPJV]

I must be doing something seriously wrong. Using the compact material editor (my comfort zone) I can assign a bitmap to a slot, but I see NOTHING labeled 'diffuse' (and I remember seeing it in times past, too). Went to Slate. Switched to Arnold. Didn't SEE a 'Standard Material' carrier, but it showed up in the search box. No 'diffuse' slot, but there's a 'diffuse_roughness' slot. I can pull up a bitmap holder and link it into that slot. Can drag this substance to the plane. Nothing shows up. 'Show material in viewport' IS  selected. I render it, and I see a negative image of the bitmap.

Any of this sound familiar?

[10DSpace · Accepted solution]

@homyakchik2QPJV 

The standard material (now called Standard (Legacy)) has a diffuse slot as shown below:

But the standard material doesn't show up as an option in the Material Map browser with Arnold as the renderer.   I guess the thinking is that you should be using the Physical Material with Arnold as it has more options and has  advantages, particularly with a PBR workflow.    But if you want to use the standard material just switch the Renderer to Scanline and then you will see the standard (Legacy) material as an option in the Material Map Browser.   

After assigning the standard material to an object in your scene you will be able to view it in the Compact Material Editor by using the eyedropper tool to place it in a slot in the CME and even if you switch back to Arnold as the renderer you will still be able to view the standard material in the CME.    If you don't want to switch the render engine just to assign a standard material to an object you can also open the Maxscript Listener and Type:

$.material = standardmaterial()    and hit enter

and the currently selected object  will be assigned a standard material.

For your info, the "Diffuse" slot in the standard material corresponds to the "Base Color" slot of the Physical material.  

[homyakchik2QPJV]

And these all together appear to be IT. I didn't see the 'diffuse' slot in the material editor (and while I haven't put much effort into texturing things 'til now--my focus has been on the modeling--I did remember there being a 'diffuse' there). I found a way to make Slate do the job, kind of (yes, it appears intriguingly powerful, and whoa! I don't think I'm ever going to know what all those slots are for), but it seemed buggy. But replacing Arnold with Scanline got me (after replacing Physical material with Standard) the 'diffuse' box back.

What a remarkably retarded lot of upgrades. Argh.

Many thanks. Your solution was cogent, probably more polite than this newby deserved, and hit EVERY point. 😉

Davey