• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Materials Navigator problem?

M

mike_cyul

Messages
53
Have run into a gmax problem, which must have started to occurr before saving at the end of the last session, as it has affected not just the main file but the backups (both gmax auto and personal) as well, although there were no problems during the session.

I can't open the project file any more. By merging the file into a new or existing file (which has the same materials and textures as the original), I can see the aircraft again, but the model no longer has textures, which makes me believe it's a materials editor/navigator problem. The parts are a dark grey colour, though, which might seem to indicated gmax is expecting a texture. Opening 'Properties' on the new parts, however, indicates they have no materials associated with them.

Once the merged file is closed, it can't be opened again.

It's also possible to click on a problem part and open the Materials Editor, but if I click on Materials Navigator and try to open the list, gmax announces the following Assertion error and closes: "... MaxSDK\Include\tab.h" and under that "line.117"

I can't find any files by those names.

.... and I've no idea if it's related, but on accasion at startup there is also an "Unsupported Objects" box which appears, which says "Filename: Scripted Plugin Class:FlightSimX Superclass:0xC00 "

Other gmax files are opening ok, fully textured.

The textures are still in abcache.

Any ideas? :confused:

Thanks,


Mike
 
Last edited:
Sounds like corruption. Test your system memory - I found gMax reacts badly to bad memory, with some weird things happening (its personal favorite was corrupting .gmax files on save - extremely annoying if you've just spent 2 hours creating something!!). :eek:

Best regards,
Robin.
 
Sounds like a problem with the Plug-ins for Gmax (at least for that particular error message). Sometimes it will open without loading the FSX Plugins. When this happens, can you confirm that there is NO FS Tools menu in Gmax?
 
Thanks for the answers. Not really convinced memory was the issue, as with 2 gig and using smallish jpeg's for the in-program textures, it can't have used that much, and the problem just affects one file.

As for the plug-in error, could well be, as gmax was opened and closed several times as I looked for a solution. Usually I make sure the MaxScript\Run Script...\startup\bootstrap.ms has been opened to ensure all plugins are up and running correctly.

As the problem seems to be the materials in the file, I think that what's needed, if possible, is to open the file without gmax and find some way to remove the material portion.

Otherwise, some 100 hours down the drain.:(

What this will definately mean is a change in the method of saving backups! That a long session could mean that the auto backups also contained the problem is a surprise. That a corruption problem that occurrs during a session may not show itself until a file is re-opened later is also a surprise. My habit of saving file copies by overwriting the old ones will have to change, to make sure one session can't kill a whole project. No more overwriting. Live and learn!

Mike
 
Amen to that! NEVER overwrite any file is the best practice to be followed, no matter what program you are using!

With Max/GMax you can either set it up to "auto-increment" on every Save, or use the Save As option and hit the "+" button to manually increment.

Since you can "Merge" your existing file into an empty project, do that and then Select all the parts.

Use the Tool rollout to Remove all UVW Mapping and Materials from your parts, save the result and then try to load it normally... <fingers-crossed-mode:ON> :yellowfla
 
God bless you Sir, and your crossed fingers! That did the trick. Although all the textures and materials for over 250 parts are now gone, at least the model itself is now restored, as well as all the animations (except those involving bones\skin, of which there were only a couple).

The only parts effected were those being worked on during that last session, and they have disappeared completely. Six altogether, so not too bad.

Re-texturing, and re-making a few parts, is certainly better than losing the whole deal. Thank you!

You made my day. And week. And month, too, probably. :)

Thanks again,

Mike
 
Hi,

Pleased you got it sorted out!

Not really convinced memory was the issue, as with 2 gig and using smallish jpeg's for the in-program textures, it can't have used that much
Click to expand...
I was referring to memory corruption, not memory available. :)

and the problem just affects one file.
Click to expand...
Ahh - that didn't seem clear from your original post.

Happy New Year!

Best regards,
Robin.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top