Using MXP files for Alternate 3DS Max Path Configuration

Donald_Newlands · April 8, 2024, 7:07pm

Hi,

I’m having trouble getting the Use Alternate Paths File function to work in SMTD.
I have a Max project with local map and xref paths that I want to submit to Deadline and use the Alternate File Paths function to add paths to the max projects to find the xrefs and bitmaps on our Windows network.

My MXP file looks something like this:

[Directories]
Animations=.\sceneassets\animations
Archives=.\archives
AutoBackup=.\autoback
BitmapProxies=.\proxies
Downloads=.\downloads
Export=.\export
Expressions=.\express
Images=.\sceneassets\images
Import=.\import
Materials=.\materiallibraries
MaxStart=.\scenes
Photometric=.\sceneassets\photometric
Previews=.\previews
RenderAssets=.\sceneassets\renderassets
RenderOutput=.\renderoutput
RenderPresets=.\renderpresets
Scenes=.\scenes
Sounds=.\sceneassets\sounds
VideoPost=.\vpost
[XReferenceDirs]
Dir1=\\servername\project\XREF
[BitmapDirs]
Dir1=\\servername\project\_scene_maps

I can verify that my alternate map paths are correct, but my render tasks always fail.
I can’t find any useful information in the task reports as to why they are failing - I don’t see any specific error messages that would cause the rendering to terminate.

Is this format correct?

Thanks!
-Donald Newlands

zainali · April 8, 2024, 9:53pm

A random guess would be to try use the absolute paths here? There might be someone out there in the community who can anwser this.

Donald_Newlands · April 9, 2024, 12:40am

zainali,

Thanks - I don’t think relative paths were causing my job failures - it didn’t make any difference whether those general Max paths were there when I finally got it to work.

It seems that with this MXP alternative path option, even if you tell Max to ignore missing bitmaps and xrefs, your renders will crash with no explanation if you are missing files (or have not added all the necessary paths).

-Donald