Material library in 2022?

[pietarivisanti]

After updating to Max 2022 it is really puzzling to try to use it. Are you sure that the material library system is now absolutely as difficult to use as it can possibly be? I mean how can someone start using Max when creating Arnold materials is pretty difficult and all the materials are grey?

The settings are for Arnold but all the base materials are missing. Just grey materials.  It would be nice to see some different materials and how they are done but apparently it was possible already in the 90's but not anymore.

After some googling I find this: https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AF3DSUG/Material+Library

OK. So I download this and put it in to materiallibraries folder. (btw. It would have been nice to mention here where to put it and what to do with it.)

So I try to open the material library. Weirdly it is only possible from a really small arrow in slate mode. (There is no material library to found in compact mode.) The dialog opens up materiallibraries folder (which includes files on the right, including MAXtoA downloaded in previous step. The dialog shows nothing (middle). Nothing can be opened?

So what should I do? Start building materials from scratch from grey materials? Or is there something else to do? Materials were possible 30 years ago so it should be possible now. Please help me.

I just wonder how can someone new start to use Max without materials and no explanations where to find them.

[Stephen.Blair]

Just click Save in the Create Material Library dialog box.

 

https://www.screencast.com/t/X6Yt2c6pC

[pietarivisanti]

How do I open a material library when Max can't show any material libraries I have in the material library folder? I can't save a material library Max can't see.

[Stephen.Blair]

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@pietarivisanti wrote:

How do I open a material library when Max can't show any material libraries I have in the material library folder? I don't want to create a material library from scratch. I can't save a material library Max can't see.

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I see five material libraries in that screenshot.

[pietarivisanti]

The upper part of the image is from 3DS Max 2022. The part below is from Windows File Manager which contains my material libraries. Unfortunately 3DS Max can't see these files. The respond is "no items match your search".

[Stephen.Blair]

Ok, I see.
I notice none of the other material libraries are shown. What's the current renderer?

If you put the MAXtoA library somewhere else, like your Downloads folder, do you see it?

[oliver · Accepted solution]

Watch out: the default "Import library"-dialog opens in the project's materiallibraries-folder! You have to navigate to the program's materiallibraries-folder.

[pietarivisanti]

Thank you. I was really confused why 3ds Max 2022/materiallibraries had nothing in it when the folder clearly had stuff in it. The whole path in Max was Documents/3ds Max 2022/materiallibraries, which does not work.

[pietarivisanti]

So the materials are in Slate editor but Compact editor materials are still all grey. Is there a way to save the materials in compact editor so that every time I open Max there is something in compact material editor. Slate editor looks too complicated and unfamiliar and I would prefer not to use it. Or is it now "verboten" to use compact editor since there are no materials to begin with? There was materials in compact editor in 2021 version and it was possible to just start with those and tweak them.

[oliver]

Those grey slots are materials! Default grey PhysicalMaterials. I guess you miss those preset-materials one could set as default in the past - you can find them on the {Finishes}-dropdown menu just above the PhysicalMaterial-logo in every material. 

[pietarivisanti]

I think there has been some big design errors in usability in 2022.

- Material editor opens without materials
- Materials hidden in a drop down menu with different name

- In order to open a material library you have to switch editor to a completely different editor which is not the default

- Opening again hidden under small arrow and drop down menu

- Search opens to a folder that has the same name as the real folder yet contains nothing

- Materials still not showing in both editors

I hope this helps someone in the future. I was doing almost fine with 2021 but I fear this is just the beginning.

[Anonymous]

I agree 100%. This is crazy. Next to unusable. Did you get it to work? Is there a way to get the Arnold materials to (all of them) show a rendered preview, automatically, like material libraries work in all other 3D software?

[pietarivisanti]

Yes I made it work. Thing is I can't use only Max and there are 6-7 other software that I have to use a lot depending on the project. Max is the one that takes most of the time just to figure out how it works. A lot of it has to do with the fact that weeks might go without using Max and then I have to figure it out again. Hours can go just to make one material or fix the lights. It is frustrating to watch couple of 15 minute tutorial videos just to do one task that was quite simple before. That is why I created a default scene with all the materials and physical sky lights (that are not completely black or white) that I open when I start Max. I downloaded that material library from https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AF3DSUG/Material+Library and I imported the relevant materials in to the compact editor. Also imported all the good materials from the physical material/presets/finishes drop down menu. So when I start to sketch a new project I don't have to figure out everything from scratch when I open this "default" scene. This might be a boomer noob way to do it but it works for me.

I still havent figured out Autocad LT ribbon menu either and I always recreate the classic interface, so this is nothing new to me.

I also have a lot of old projects that were made with Max scanline. Usually clients are still happy with those and sometimes they just want to change couple of colours. They are not willing to pay or understand that it would take a lot of time to recreate materials and lights in Arnold so I have discovered that it's just best not to use scene converter and still do it with scanline. Converting to Arnold creates so many problems that it takes a long time just to get it back to what it was. Now I only start new projects in Arnold but it feels like using 2 completely different software when I have to do Scanline sometimes too.

[oliver]

Now this sounds way more confident 🙂

Great to hear that you found the way YOU want it to work.

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@pietarivisanti wrote:

This might be a boomer noob way to do it but it works for me.

No it's not - you streamlined your personal workflow and took advantage of available options. That does not sound noobish at all...

[pietarivisanti]

"Is there a way to get the Arnold materials to (all of them) show a rendered preview, automatically, like material libraries work in all other 3D software?"

If the materials are physical materials and renderer is set as Arnold both in Active Shade Mode and Production Rendering Mode the materials should show in the editor. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. Sometimes the materials in the editor are grey no matter what you do but the materials change in the active shade view. The colours and maps just have to be changed without seeing the thumbnail changing. Sometimes the material editor slots are completely black both material and background. Then the materials might be visible eventually or then Max crashes.

In Scanline the Active Shade does not work at all and crashes or freezes Max so Scanline can be used only with Production Rendering Mode. The good thing is that in my experience the materials are visible in the editor all the time and also change if changes are made.

No idea what ART does as I never used that so much.