Gmax export error - what does it mean?

" At least one sub material is used" and then the export fails. Does this have to do with the mapping? Maybe something is not mapped?

Doug

No, it simply means that you have a Multi-Material with at least one slot unused, which is precisely what the error message says...

Look at your Multi-Materials and see if any of the slots has "NONE" in them. If they do, then that's your problem.

Ok thank you sir. I'm not sure what you mean by slots. What is the recommendation? How are multi materials created if I've only ever selected " standard". Any insight is greatly appreciated.

When you attach parts that have different materials together they get turned into a new multimaterial , the slot is no more than a clickspot to the right side of the material editor where the bitmaps are assigned .

It can also happen if you should "drag-and-drop" Materials to a selected object. Max/GMax will silently create a new Multi-Material and you won't even know about it...

...until it bites you on the a$$ during export.

Here is an illustration of a Multi-Material with an "unused slot":

Thanks, I understand now. There are apparently a few of those situations in my project. What are my options in this case: turn them off, delete them, or re-map the objects?

Deltasierra2004 said:

Thanks, I understand now. There are apparently a few of those situations in my project. What are my options in this case: turn them off, delete them, or re-map the objects?

Click to expand...

There's no need to re-map the objects. Simply create new FSX (or Standard) Materials if needed*, select the object(s) that texture uses, then click the "Apply" button on the Material Editor.

Hint: You can "filter out" any unused Materials by using the "Merge" feature to load your most current .max or .gmax file into a new scene.

I do this every so often to keep my Material Library lean and clean...

*NOTE: if the Multi-Material was created by "accident," then your original Materials are still available to be "re-assigned" to the objects in your project.

If your still confused

Hi,

Look at this photo for a quick fix.



DG

Thank you DG. Yes I was confused and unable to continue til I got this resolved. Thanks for identifying my situation n4gix, perhaps I should have said the project is for FS9.

Regarding the image, curious why you suggest slot 2 and 6 to delete, or are you saying just the slots that say "NONE" ?

Sorry I'm a Gmax newb. There are so many roadblocks in this program, seems to be half the battle most of the time. Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it.

Doug

Deltasierra2004 said:

Thank you DG. Yes I was confused and unable to continue til I got this resolved. Thanks for identifying my situation n4gix, perhaps I should have said the project is for FS9.

Regarding the image, curious why you suggest slot 2 and 6 to delete, or are you saying just the slots that say "NONE" ?

Sorry I'm a Gmax newb. There are so many roadblocks in this program, seems to be half the battle most of the time. Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it.

Doug

Click to expand...

Which is why I used only Standard Materials in my earlier screenshot, and parenthetically mentioned (Standard) Materials in my second reply.

In any case, your guess at deleting any slots with "NONE" in them is correct. Those might represent "unused" Materials, although it's possible that you might be using one to texture poly(s) with a stock color!

As it is most likely in your case that the Multi-Material was created by GMax "by accident", I suggested that you take the steps I outlined originally. This way you are guaranteed to "get what you ask for" and not what some dumb program decides is what you "probably wanted..."

this cost me a few hours

yeah...and what the dumb programs decides for you can cost you alotta time. so as you are doing anything, go slow and verify before clicking the "go button." most times you just get some annoying popup when you collapse an unwanted map onto your parts. on some ops a misplaced click requires that you go back to a previously saved model and start there. it gets really complicated very fast if you are not careful because an improperly textured model can get corrupted on export. i save twice on export for this very reason. i change my setup (visa vie, texture changes, ani changes, cloning, etc..) to the way i want it and save at the change level. then regroup and center my interior/exterior model then save the whole mess adding "export" to the save name, then export. this way if an unfriendly whatever trashes my model i have already saved a backup.

vincentf563 said:

...this way if an unfriendly whatever trashes my model i have already saved a backup.

Click to expand...

HINT: Look in the ..\gmax\Autoback folder and take note of the files with the .gx extension...

Autobak1.gx
Autobak2.gx
Autobak3.gx
et cetera...

Have you ever noticed that periodically a "spinning icon" appears briefly? That is GMax automatically taking a snapshot of your scene and generating one of those timed backup files!

You can set your "Preferences" for the Autoback feature. I have mine set to save five timed iterations every five minutes.

You can Open any of the Autobakn.gx files in GMax by navigating to the ..\gmax\Autoback folder, setting the file display to show All Files (*.*), then picking the most recently saved backup.

Because of my Preference settings, the very most I will ever "lose" is the last five minutes of work. This little-known feature has saved my sanity more times than I can possibly remember!

In addition to the Autoback feature, you should also set the "Auto-Increment on Save" feature. Then whenever you do a Save, it will automatically increment your file's name with a numeric extension instead of overwriting (always a "bad idea!") your existing file. You can also force an incremental Save by using the + (plus sign) icon, but that's too "iffy" to me...