Hello Deadline Team,
I’ve encountered an issue that only appears when using the Japanese version of 3ds Max in conjunction with Deadline. In short, render output paths set in Japanese 3ds Max can consistently trigger:
Error: RenderTask: Unexpected exception (Error in bm->OpenOutput(): error code 12
…but if the same scene and the same path are handled via the English version of 3ds Max, the error does not occur.
It is important to note that this is a problem that cannot be avoided by ENU language override.
Steps to Reproduce (Detailed)
- Launch 3ds Max in Japanese (an actual Japanese install, no ENU override).
- Inside this Japanese 3ds Max session, go to Render Setup and set the render output file path.
- Submit to Deadline using SMTD or Deadline Monitor with ENU language override (so effectively forcing an English environment for the render).
- Observe that Deadline fails with the error:
Error in bm->OpenOutput(): error code 12
- Next, open the same 3ds Max scene file in the English version of 3ds Max (keeping the rest of the environment the same).
- Re-specify the same output path and submit again to Deadline.
- Notice that now it renders successfully without Error 12.
From these tests, it seems that how the Japanese version of 3ds Max internally stores or interprets the file path differs from the English version. That difference triggers the “bm->OpenOutput()” error in Deadline, even though the path string is ostensibly the same.
This problem has been tested at least with 3ds Max 2024 and 2025, using both Scanline and Redshift renderers.
Questions
- Have you seen similar reports about localized (non-English) versions of 3ds Max failing in this manner?
- Are there known workarounds (other than always running Max in English)?
- Could Deadline potentially detect or correct this underlying difference in file path handling in a future update, effectively working around the localized Max behavior?
I would appreciate any insights you could provide or a timeframe for a possible fix.