[3DS Max] Transfer Vertex Color to Diffuse Map directly with NO shadow/light information?

Stenrik

I imported a PLY model with vertex color embedded into 3DS Max.  I then UV unwrapped it and need to transfer the vertex colors to a diffuse material. 

How do I directly transfer this color information to a bitmap without altering the color based on the ambient light of the scene?  I read somewhere that it could be done directly within the Max material editor, without using "Render to Texture" at all.  But I have not been able to find out to do it.

When I did try using Render to Texture, I set the material's self-illumination to 100%.  I saw the diffuse map render show up (although I'm unsure whether it is accurate, seems too bright).  But right after it popped up, Max immediately crashed.  This happened multiple times.

Can anyone outline how the transfer can be done without "render to texture" at all?  And if not, why rendering to texture is crashing my software?  (I am in Max 2020).

Thanks.

Noren

You can render maps in the material editor (e. g. if you have some noises or already unwrapped textures you can render a combined result of the texture), but the material editor has no idea of your object or its UV layout (or its vertex colors for that matter) so I'd be skeptical regarding the question if it can do what you want. You can apply a vertex color material to the diffuse slot and try to bake via RTT, which I assume you did.

I don't have Max 2020 installed, so I have no idea what causes the crash, but try using different renders. E. g. Vray crashes Max if a non-V-Ray target map is selected. 
You don't need to set self-illumination to 100, you should simply be able to render a diffuse map/texture. Check your gamma/exposure settings if the brightness seems off (if the latter affects RTT at all, not sure at the moment).
Check the final saved map in the location you specified, though, not the preview (if RTT gets that far).

Another thing that used to crash RTT were empty target objects, but you don't need any target object in your case.

You could also wait a couple of days until Max 2021 is released which apparently gets a new texture baking solution.