Issue with 3ds max Default "Autodesk Material"

Regretful123

Hello,
I came across working in Autodesk 3ds max 2013 from school, and I used some of the materials that came with 3ds max. When I'm not at school, I tried to open my scene, and it would say that there's a material missing or invalid. I load the material that was having the problem, and it said this following error "Error Loading Autodesk Material Library 2012 Invalid Asset Instance!" What really bugs me is that I have the exact same 3ds max installed at home, updated to the latest patches and hotfixes, and I cannot for goodness sake, find the Autodesk Material Library (The scene is already using Mental Ray). I keep googling for a solution, but it seems like I have done every possible solution there is.

So my question for you guys, is how can I get the default Autodesk Material Library working or at least get it fixed?
Thanks in advance!

Rrebel

Have you tried to use a completely different default material, let say a sky or a tree for example and see if it loads?
2)back up the material that works. move the materials does not seem to work to another location. Install the material that seem to work in its respective folder (where the material that does not seem to work was originally).

Hope that helps

Eric Chadwick

It could be the material library is an optional install, one you didn't opt for in your home install. I'd recommend grabbing the DVD and going thru the install options.

spacefrog

Eric Chadwick wrote: »

It could be the material library is an optional install, one you didn't opt for in your home install. I'd recommend grabbing the DVD and going thru the install options.

AFAIK you can't opt out of the Autodesk Materials install. At least this is the case in the last few releases i think....

radiancef0rge

you cant opt out on install but you can uninstall them after
theyre like a gig or something. waste o'space

Kwramm

yup. you can uninstall it afterwards. You can also reinstall it separately (if you uninstall it first) again. should be a .msi file in one of the folders of the install dvd

spacefrog

If there's a chance that you might recieve a customer file which is using the AD materials you are in trouble without them installed. The materials simply are black then as far i remember...
And architects and the like LOVE those materials, because they have 5 knobs maximum to fiddle arround and they usually do not recognize how insanely SLOW and UNOPTIMIZED they are at render time ;-)

Regretful123

Rrebel wrote: »

Have you tried to use a completely different default material, let say a sky or a tree for example and see if it loads?
2)back up the material that works. move the materials does not seem to work to another location. Install the material that seem to work in its respective folder (where the material that does not seem to work was originally).

Hope that helps

I have tried this, and it has perform perfectly. It's just that 2013 does not have the Autodesk Library set that should normally come with.

I checked back in 2012 version of 3ds max and it does have the Autodesk Material library loaded and performs perfectly. So I went in a checked the directory of both 3ds max and I found a few folder missing. One of the folder that I found that contains the material was mentalimages.

I'll do a quick repair on 2013, and if that doesn't work, I'll see about getting it reinstall. Reinstalling 3ds max is my last resort since it's a major pain in the butt to update, especially if it's installed on a different drive.


Edited; Tried to reinstall it, but it stated that there's already Autodesk Material Library installed. I went back to 3ds max and checked. Still missing. Here's the pics - http://i.imgur.com/UWZJMOe.jpg

Here's 2012 - http://i.imgur.com/odeBRMq.jpg

Installer for 2013 - http://i.imgur.com/4haEszo.jpg

So even though the installer stated that Autodesk Material has been installed, it's not even showing up in the actual material library.

spacefrog

You can check for the correct paths in the registry. Below are my entries, as you can see i moved the whole load of materials and textures to a custom path.
Of course on your the system, the paths will be different. But the entries should exist and the paths/files they point to should exist on your harddrive too. If those are correct the AD materials should be visible in Max (in Slate/Advance material editor at least)

For the 2012/2013 install those entries should point to the correct files:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Autodesk\ADSKAssetLibrary]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Autodesk\ADSKAssetLibrary\2012]
"LibraryPaths"="D:\\Data\\3DMiscData\\Autodesk_Materials\\2012\\assetlibrary_base.adsklib"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Autodesk\ADSKAssetLibrary\2013]
"LibraryPaths"="D:\\Data\\3DMiscData\\Autodesk_Materials\\2013\\assetlibrary_base.adsklib"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Autodesk\ADSKTextureLibrary]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Autodesk\ADSKTextureLibrary\1]
"LibraryPaths"="D:\\Data\\3DMiscData\\Autodesk_Materials\\Textures\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Autodesk\ADSKTextureLibrary\3]
"LibraryPaths"="D:\\Data\\3DMiscData\\Autodesk_Materials\\Textures\\"

Regretful123

Ah! Super thanks Spacefrog! There seems to be a missing 2013 folder in the common files. I decided to enroute it to use 2012 instead and it did load the materials I was missing!