Problem Baking Normal Maps in 3ds Max 7

Mugofdoom

I've been trying to get normal map baking in max right for a while now, and now that I finally got it mostly right, I've encountered a problem. When I press render after everything is filled out correctly and the low and high poly models are in the scene, the maxscript, Macro_BakeTextures.mcr, pops up and freezes there for a while. After a few seconds a message pops up saying: --Unknown Property: "modifiers" in undefined.
I've attempted to fix it in the maxscript but there are simply too many instances of "modifiers" for me to find the problem.
Has anyone else had this problem? If so how do you fix it?

Mark Dygert

- It could be running out of memory, because the high poly mesh is too dense or your lighting/render setup is too convoluted. If you try rendering with the default settings does it error out?
- Can you bake even simple objects?
- Are you using any advanced materials like VRay or Mental Ray materials and trying to bake with the default scanline render?
- It could have been broken by a custom script or plug-in.
- Your modifier history stack could be causing problems, you might want to colapse it down to just Edit Poly or Edit Mesh and try to rebake.
- Your control cage might be causing an issue, try resetting it and adjusting the push value. If your control cage goes from looking like a tangled nightmare to a bigger version of your mesh then you might have just solved it. I always have to reset the cage, not sure why it always dorks the first time...
- Are you using the auto unwrap feature or an existing unwrap channel? Does that channel actually exist?

Mugofdoom

Well, I used a .obj of the model I exported, it is unwrapped and all, the cage looks fine, and it won't work on any model I've tried. Also, before all this started for some reason it wanted me to connect to a server to bake the textures, don't know if this has anything to do with it though.

Mark Dygert

Connecting to a server means you had a network render solution set up. You really should check your render settings in the RTT options screen.

It sounds like you have been tweaking quite a bit and might need to reset just about everything and follow a tutorial or two. I'm not a fan of reinstalling software but you might not have any other options...

I suggest you try baking a simple object like two cylinders and see what you can work out.

Mugofdoom

Shit, well reinstalling is out of the question, don't have anything to do it with. I may try moving all my plugins.