Trying to use the Arnold renderer... All I get is black!

[Anonymous]

So this is embarrassing and frustrating. I've been using Max since it was called 3d Studio, literally over 25 years... and now I find myself unable to render anything. It's like I had a CGI stroke and no longer know how to use the software. I'm having many problems with the software but I'll keep this post to two... I'd greatly appreciate any help anybody can provide because it feels like I'm loosing my mind. 

- My renders are pitch black, I cant see a thing. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the Arnold lights but by default I get nothing, not a spec of light. My view ports are the opposite, they are blasted out completely. I've a super simple test scene set up, nothing special, I'll attach it here. Why for the love of god don't these tools just work out of the box, by default the settings should provide some results. I'd trade an older version of the software anyway for what it has become. It's rough to go from award winning digital artist to invalid in just a few versions of my favorite software.

- My other problem is my video driver, I think... it also may be my setting in max, or my settings in the NVidia control panel. I'm using a Quadro 4000. It works fine at first, and then I stop seeing my marquee when I go to drag, if I maximize a particular window the view port goes white, if I then hide and re show the software all the view ports go white, I have to restart to get it back. I'm using the Nitrous (direct3D 11.0 Feature level 11 - NVIDIA Quadro 4000) driver. If I switch to Direct 3d 9, it seems to work but not really as all my objects are now black and I cant see a thing. 

I'm scratching my head thinking "ok, where is Ashton kutcher? Jokes over guys, ya got me good... can I go back to work now" Autodesk - What are you doing to us? What happened to the good ole days when things just worked?

Oh what the heck one more... my icons are all now generic, app icon and project icons. No big deal but, really?

Frank 

[Stephen.Blair · Accepted solution]

Increase the Intensity or Exposure of that quad light.

Light decays overs distance

[sdeters · Accepted solution]

turn your Exposure gain setting on your Camera from 10 to like 1, then I get a rendered image.  No black.  You could also turn your light intensity up and down to start seeing your objects in your rendering.

We run a quadro k4000 card and have not had any issues.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, yeah I played with that and started to see results. I was also using a physical camera, exposure settings there as well. What I'm trying to figure out now is how to control the attenuation of the light. With standard lights it was easily set as for the start and end of the light attenuation. I'm not seeing such control with the Arnold lights... do you know if it exists?

Frank

[Anonymous]

I am still seeing problems with the screen display and refresh. After a bit I loose my marque, I can still see that objects are getting selected but I can not see the selection marquee. Also the state of objects does not change to show selected... basically there are no changes in the view-port to tell me what is happening. Also a view-port may just go white with no hope of recovering it outside of a restart. I guess it could be anything but since it only happens when I'm set to Direct 3d 11, I assume it's the card and the card is from 2013. A very good card, but maybe a bit dated for this release of Max 2018. Also I am an instructor at The Art Institute, I run an educators copy... and I am affriad to update to 2019 considering all the difficulty I'm having with 2018.