Transparent or 2sided materials rendering problem! (VRAY)

[Anonymous]

Hello!

I had some issues with all types of transparent materials or 2sided materials.

I already search tutorials or other similar cases in the forum, but nothing to do.

I have already done this before on the older laptop, but it is not working on the new one.

Hope you can help me.

I'm using 3ds Max 2021 with VRAY 5 and I'm trying to render Chinese lamps using 2sided mtl and windows, but when I try to render them it doesn't show transparency.

Chinese lamp model

Lamp 2sided mtl:

The final render, as you can see the 2sided mtl isn't working.

The same issue for the windows:

this is without the glass

Then I added the glass mtl

And that's the final result, it is not transparent.

Hope someone can help me.

Thank you in advance.

[RobH2]

What happens if you turn OFF, 'Force single-sided sub-materials' ?

[RobH2]

I finally found a tutorial that I thought was good. It might help you in case you have a setting wrong. Try using a second material for the inside. That might help. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_z66nbqvw4&ab_channel=leonleon51

If you are sure you are having a Max malfunction, maybe upload the file and someone can look at it. Make sure VRay is updated.

Try doing an ENU reset (save/backup the current one) then reboot your computer and relaunch Max. I've found recently that I've had a few odd issues that were solved by a reboot. I don't know why, but it's solved several lately. It's like something just "stops" working and after a reboot it's perfectly normal. 

Edit: I just attached a file I made. See if it works on your machine. If so, then you have something wrong in your setup. If not, then maybe Max is having a malfunction.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the reply, but still not working 😞

Do you have any other solution?

         

[Anonymous]

I tried to render your file and it's still not working.

Maybe 3ds Max is having a malfunction, then I'll try to do an ENU reset, hope it works.

I'll let you know thank you so much.

[RobH2]

Darn, I was hoping that would work.

What are your computer specs? You might also uninstall VRay, reboot and reinstall it. 

[RobH2]

If you are able to upload your file I'd like to open it. 

[Anonymous]

I tried to do the ENU reset and tried to reinstall vray then reboot the laptop, but nothing to do. Still can't see the transparent effect in the render.

Here's the file, hope you can find the problem.

https://we.tl/t-03vXBPDPpC

In the meantime, I will try to do a clean uninstall and reinstall MAX.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Just tried to reinstall MAX after doing a clean uninstall, the problem is not fixed yet.

Hope you can find out something.

Thank you!

[RobH2]

I'm looking at it now. 

[RobH2 · Accepted solution]

I think Max is OK. I believe that the problems were related to how you set up some things in the model. I'm sorry you spent so much time uninstalling and reinstalling. I'm returning the file to you in a private message. It has my changes. Some of them you may want to keep and some you may want to ignore but the main goal here was to determine if Max was malfunctioning. 

You can reverse engineer my file to see what I did but I'll list the main things. 

1. I disabled Exposure Control and the Environment Map in the Environment panel. I wanted to make sure they weren't interfering with my tests.

2. Material Override was Enabled in V-Ray Global settings but no map was in the slot. I turner that OFF.

3. I set GI to 'Brute Force'. It makes doing Progressive IPR renders better. 

4. I imported my 2-sided material and used it for the tests since I knew it worked. 

First, kudos for your naming of things. I do that even for files that only I see. It makes life so much nicer and faster. It's so difficult to work on people's files that have 1000's of 'box_001, box_002....' forever. Here are my suggestions and what made things work. Remember, there are multiple ways in Max to solve most things. This is just my way and it got it working. If you don't like my solution that's fine, you can create your own, but at least you know that at worst, "one method" works. 

1. Your lanterns were objects with depth. You don't need the inside geometry. For the ones you see working, I removed all of the inside polys so that the lanterns are just one surface. That's why the 2-sided material didn't work. It won't work on a solid (manifold) object. It needs just a single surface. As soon as I deleted the inner polys they worked. 

2. In the window opening of the building, there are backs on the pushed in openings. I'd remove those (as I did) so the windows punch through the wall like a real building. Then put the glass in to catch reflections. Put lights inside the room like a real space instead of having planar VRay lights in each opening that point out. 

3. I UV mapped the spheres of the lanterns with a simple Spherical map. You had Planar maps or the default maps. It doesn't affect the transparency but does make them look better. 

I likely changed a few other things, use them or don't, that's up to you. The main thing causing the problem was the inner faces on the lanterns and the solid back to the window openings. Fix those and you'll be good to go I think. 

I'm attaching a few photos to show that things work but the Max file will come to you in a PM. 

[RobH2 · Accepted solution]

A couple more photos since there is a limit per post.

[Anonymous]

It's working!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Really really you save my exam haha.

Thanks again!

Ina

[RobH2]

🙂