My 3ds Max is very slow, it is hard to navigate in the viewport or use the material editor!

Note: please always contact us about this issue, even if you have already managed to find a solution or workaround yourself. This will help other users, and will also help us fix similar issues in the future. 

 

Symptoms

This article applies if the following symptoms can be observed:

• Viewport becoming very slow
• It is hard or impossible to work in the viewport due to freezes
• Other parts of the 3ds Max UI are slow as well (material editor, menus, moving objects,...)

 

Additional possibilities:

• It happens in a newer version of Corona, but not in an older one (e.g. happens in 8  but not in 7)
• It only happens in scenes where textures are in network locations (paths starting with \\name\... )
• It happens with Corona Bitmap and 3ds Max Bitmap nodes, or only with the Corona Bitmap or 3ds Max Bitmap
• Disabling/enabling maps in viewport does not change anything

 

Possible solutions

1. If after inspecting the resource monitor, the following can be established:

Currently the solution is to add 3ds Max to Windows Defender exceptions, or disable Windows Defender completely.

Note: this issue might be also appearing when using other antivirus/firewall software than Windows Defender. In such case it is also advised to disable that application, or add 3ds Max to its exceptions list.

 

2. If disabling Windows Defender or other AV software does not help:

Check if converting all bitmaps in your scene to Corona Bitmap or 3ds Max Bitmap helps. This can be done using our Corona converter script. If that's the case, please contact us about this. 

 

3. If the issues is not related to AV software or Corona/Max Bitmaps:

See this forum thread for a possible solution: https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/v-ray-for-3ds-max-forums/v-ray-for-3ds-max-problems/967548-v-ray-3-6-vfb-hangs?p=975884#post975884

 

4. If you are using geometry plugins such as FloorGenerator and/or texture plugins such as MultiTexture:

Check if disabling or removing objects and texture maps generated by those plugins resolves the problem. If this helps, consider converting generated objects (such as FloorGenerator floors) to Editable Mesh or Editable Poly and using Corona's built in CoronaMultiMap map in place of MultiTexture as it provides very similar functionality.

 

5. If none of the above seems to help

The issue may be related to the way 3ds Max UI is displayed on specific hardware and software. Please try the following solutions:

 

Set a Qt Environment variable in Windows:

• Go to the Search bar, then type in System. (It should bring up the choice of "System (Control Panel)." Press Enter.
• In the System menu, click on the Advanced Systems Settings item on the bottom-left of the menu. A System Properties menu will appear.
• At the bottom of this menu, click on the Environment Variables button. The Environment Variables menu will appear.
• At the bottom of the menu, under System variables, click on the New button to bring up the New System Variable menu.
• Under Variable name, enter: QT_OPENGL
• Under Variable value, enter: angle
• Save this new variable, and create another one:
• Under Variable name, enter: QT_ANGLE_PLATFORM
• Under Variable value, enter one of the following:

warp

d3d9

d3d11

 

• Reboot the PC and re-test 3ds Max.
  Note: if one of the preceding settings doesn’t seem to work, repeat these steps, but delete the earlier variable value and replace it with the next one in the list.

 

Update your graphics card drivers:

• NVIDIA
  Note: NVIDIA offers two types of drivers - "Game Ready Driver" and "Studio Driver". It is best to check how both of these driver types perform and stay with the one which performs better.
  
  
• AMD
  
  
• Intel