Nope just your file association. Reinstalling would probably fix it but that's a little extreme. You could right click a max file and choose "open with" then choose "choose default program". Browse to the 3dsmax.exe and make sure to check on "always use the selected program to open this kind of file". It will switch the…
do you maybe have a maxstart file with some strange settings? (de)installed a renderer or custom shaders recently? something seems to go wrong inside the material editor. if all else fails, rebuild the 3dsmax.ini and/or look for other config files to rebuild inside the max-directory.
rather than start a new thread, I'll bump this up... The vertex blending tutorial I found relates to importing it into Q3, (http://www.bakdesign.net/tm/tutorial/3dsmax_tutorial.html) is there a tutorial out there that shows how to do it so it displays internally in max renders? This model will not be exported to a game…
Can you post some screenshots with your settings, normal map and cage setup in xNormal, pls? And... did you see any error/warning while exporting the max's cage using the SBM exporter? Do you mean "Use closest hit if ray fails" option? In theory that should be always checked to avoid errors if the ray fails.... but can be…