Problems with 3ds max

[FreedomFighter7]

Well I have 3ds max, but it seems to be acting funny. Sometimes after a few commands, when I try any of the manipulation commands, it doesn't work. I can try dragging a handle and it will randomly scale it, and deform the selected vertices in a very strange way. I don't know whats wrong, the system requisites say windows xp or vista 64bit, but I have windows 7 64 bit... is that the problem? I'm using 3ds max 2010.

[Tnnaas]

First off, make sure you aren't using the 34-bit version of 3ds max. If you downloaded and installed the 64-bit version, you should be good to go.

The second thing, because I think I had a similar issue, is to change graphics mode. Open up the program that allows you to change graphics mode and see what you are using. I had Direct X set up for mine but had to change to OpenGL to get it to work right. You might have the same issue.

Tell me what happens when you are done.

[neuro]

think you could post an image or 2 of your problem? you're not being terribly descriptive.
there's very few problems i've been unable to fix in max to date, working my way up from max 4.0

[FreedomFighter7]

I changed the graphics mode, it doesn't seem to be doing that anymore. However the vertices don't show up... did I change a setting? They do show up if you zoom in, but they're veeeeeerry small. I already had/have them set to size 7 handles and display... another thing, when I try to use an image on the viewport background to model from, it says "Invalid image file header". It's a jpeg, I don't know what a "header image file" is.

[BobtheGreatII]

I had that with 3ds max 2011 too. I'm not sure what happened. After a while the verts just started being... well like you said, super tiny. I tried adjusting the size... but it never really worked. So far I haven't run in to it with 2012 or 2013... but I'm not sure what the fix is. Sorry.

[neuro]

the disappearinv vertices can have a FEW causes.

1, they're hidden.
fix: go into vertex-mode, and hit the 'unhide all' button on the right panel

2, max is retarded.
fix: select a random few vertices, and hit R (scale tool) and they should pop back into view.

on a side-note, another way of ficing this, is to go into viewport properties, where you can change the way verts are displayed (dots, or crosses)

[FreedomFighter7]

None of those worked... the fuck? This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of! How hard is it to make dots show up on a screen?

Anyways, they show up in every viewport except the perspective one. And this is going to sound crazy, but its hard to see the vertices if they're like 2-4 pixels wide, in HD. I may have a small monitor, but in HD there's so much information packed into such a small space, its like trying to find a needle in a haystack! They show up if I switc it to crosses, not dots, but theyre so freaking small!

[neuro]

try this:
go to Customise -> Preferences -> Viewports tab.

there you can set the vertex-dot-size.

(also try the + and - keys, they're set to widget-soze by default, but you may have somehow gotten that stuff mixed up into becoming a vertex-size hotkey?)

[Maniac]

3ds max 2010 is the most buggy version of max.
You may want to try another version.

[DarkHalo003]

3ds max 2010 is the most buggy version of max.
You may want to try another version.
It's better than '12. I'm not sure about '11 though.

[Maniac]

I will respectfully disagree with you on that one.

[Higuy]

Max 8 superiority

[DarkHalo003]

I will respectfully disagree with you on that one.
I only say it's better because '10 uses the generally same interface that 7,8,9 did. '12 uses some different application systems and it's never easy to simply apply a texture (at least when I do it) in comparison to earlier versions. I believe there may have been something else that I had issues with, but I forgot what.

@Higuy: I thought 6, 7, and 8 were the best.

[BobtheGreatII]

Are you talking about the material library in 12? Because you can switch it back to the classic view... It's the same in 2013.

[=sw=warlord]

Gmax for the win.

[DarkHalo003]

Are you talking about the material library in 12? Because you can switch it back to the classic view... It's the same in 2013.
Holy balls how?

[Maniac]

press m.
go to the tab at the top (i dont remember the name)
select compact editor.

[DarkHalo003]

Lol it looks like I already figured that out upon loading 2012. Idk, I'll keep messing with it and see if I can remember why I didn't like it so much. But yeah, 3ds 10 is really laggy sometimes and kind of likes to dick around when I'm trying to work on stuff.

[neuro]

and at the same time, at every new version of max, they break more shit.

now even the UV editor had been fucked over, and it's simply impossible to edit any UV's on a large/dense mesh, even when you're only working on a small selection.

[DarkHalo003]

and at the same time, at every new version of max, they break more shit.

now even the UV editor had been fucked over, and it's simply impossible to edit any UV's on a large/dense mesh, even when you're only working on a small selection.
I feel I will be incredibly frustrating when I finally get to this.

[FreedomFighter7]

I got 2013, and it seem to be working ok. Thanks guys.

Neuro, you're such a cynic! Lol!

What would be a good place to find reference images? I want to model a paintball marker but I can't find any refs. Google and bing suck!

[DarkHalo003]

I got 2013, and it seem to be working ok. Thanks guys.

Neuro, you're such a cynic! Lol!

What would be a good place to find reference images? I want to model a paintball marker but I can't find any refs. Google and bing suck!
Real life often holds fruition. You have to study what you're modeling too. The more you know something, better you'll be able to remake it.

[FreedomFighter7]

Alright, I've got my own paintball marker, I just didn't want to model it. I think I'll start there.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs.... Fuuuuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! This is giving me SUCH a fucking headache! Is there any other way to create faces, without using that fucking stupid face creation tool? It would be so much easier if I could just connect fucking EXISTING vertices, instead of creating new ones every fucking time I miss the fucking vertex!! I swear to god if this crashes, or the thinf doesn't save I will fucking shoot myself right now!!!

[neuro]

oh

oh my god.

dear jesus man you need get yourself on some tutorials FAST!!!
really, what you're doing is the stupidest retardest most incomprehensable way of building anything.

protip: make a plane, convert to editable poly, select an edge, hold shift, and move that edge.
result: your workflow for the rest of your life.

[BobtheGreatII]

protip: make a plane, convert to editable poly, select an edge, hold shift, and move that edge.
result: your workflow for the rest of your life.

This.

And yes. Start with a tutorial or something. You'll be happy you did. See. I started with learning how to make maps for CE... so I had the basic idea before I started to jump to weapons and what not. However, there are plenty of tutorials out there though. So start googling!

[DarkHalo003]

neuro, if you would please link some tuts for this man, as the Baretta 9000 tutorial is apparently awful.

[neuro]

try the HEK tutorial up until the point of exporting.

it coves the most basic of basics (how to edit a box)
move up from there.

unforunately, i can't point you at any other good tutorials, but the berretta one is supposed to be decent.
do it anyway, what's the worst that can happen, you LEARN something?

[FreedomFighter7]

I've been watching youtube a bit for tutorials. I've learned some things, the only reason I tried using that is I remember some old tutorials on halomods.com, by Kirk or someone. That guy used the face creation tool a lot. I'll take your advice and avoid using it! I hope you guys know I was joking when I said I'd shoot myself xD

If you guys have any (short) tutorials you can link me, that would be great! I checked out that 7 hr long tutorial link in the tutorials section, but the links broken, and I'm not going to waste 7+ hours following that. I'm not going to waste so much time DLing that and wasting badwidth! I'm too stubborn!

[DarkHalo003]

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL691824C5890E9B19&feature=plcp

Quality isn't exactly crystal clear, but you'll learn something. That channel has a lot of useful things so long as you can keep up. Don't be afraid to step back and take a night for it all to process in your head if you look at tutorials a bunch out of confusion. When I first started learning how to model, I remember Joshflighter trying to help me model a car's hood and I failed epically. I kept looking at tuts afterwards and still couldn't get the flow of it. I eventually went to sleep one and woke up with the knowledge and basics generally clear. My biggest bit of advice that I don't think this tutorial covers is to acquaint yourself with the Cut tool.

[neuro]

If you guys have any (short) tutorials you can link me, that would be great! I checked out that 7 hr long tutorial link in the tutorials section, but the links broken, and I'm not going to waste 7+ hours following that. I'm not going to waste so much time DLing that and wasting badwidth! I'm too stubborn!

you do realise if you can't be bothered to 'spend' 7 hours on learning something, you're never going to learn a goddamn thing right?
i've been doing this stuff for over 10 years now, and i took my current job with less money, and had to move away from my girlfriend for a while for ONE main reason.
it was an opportunity for me to LEARN.

suck it up nigger, invest some time into shit.

[FreedomFighter7]

Alright, send me a link!

[DarkHalo003]

you do realise if you can't be bothered to 'spend' 7 hours on learning something, you're never going to learn a goddamn thing right?
i've been doing this stuff for over 10 years now, and i took my current job with less money, and had to move away from my girlfriend for a while for ONE main reason.
it was an opportunity for me to LEARN.

suck it up nigger, invest some time into shit.
+rep

[neuro]

Alright, send me a link!

if you can't be bothered to spend TWO SECONDS typing something into google, how did you ever learn to operate a keyboard?
i'm probably being harsh here, but if you want to learn something, you have to go after it, you can't expect other people to just pile it on to you.

this is just being lazy to a degree of stupidity.

[Donut]

ironically, the one time you think you might be being too harsh, you actually arnt. i agree entirely.

LETS SEE SOME INITIATIVE MAN!

[neuro]

ironically, the one time you think you might be being too harsh, you actually arnt. i agree entirely.

LETS SEE SOME INITIATIVE MAN!

i know man, teaching all these junior artists in the office where i'm forced to be all 'nice' n shit is making me soft.

[=sw=warlord]

if you can't be bothered to spend TWO SECONDS typing something into google, how did you ever learn to operate a keyboard?
i'm probably being harsh here, but if you want to learn something, you have to go after it, you can't expect other people to just pile it on to you.

this is just being lazy to a degree of stupidity.

One would have thought if one had the skills to know which tutorials were the right ones for people to be following then they would prefer to point said new comers in the right direction instead of later on screaming blue murder because the new comer took advice from the wrong tutorials and took up bad habits.

[neuro]

one should shut up instead, i'm sure one has better shit to do.
one completely missed the point of the post too!

[=sw=warlord]

one should shut up instead, i'm sure one has better shit to do.
one completely missed the point of the post too!
Either point to the right tutorials to follow or quit bitching when people taking on bad habits in their mesh because they looked up the wrong tutorial.
Pretty simple :v:

[DarkHalo003]

Didn't I already link to this already?

http:// http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL691824C5890E9B19&feature=plcp (http://%20http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL691824C5890E9B19&feature=plcp)

[FreedomFighter7]

^ Uh... yeah... will do!

Edit: Clicked it, 2nd link broken, however first one works. Sorry, I thought it was something different, instead its the baretta 9000 tutorial..

[FreedomFighter7]

I have another issue with 3ds max. When I try to scale in just one or two dimensions, it scales in all of them. So if I grab the X and Y gizmo, it scales along Z as well!

Edit: Did I do something wrong? If not, can I get some help?

[neuro]

there's 3 different scale tools, hit R more than once, and it'll cycle trough them

[BobtheGreatII]

Well... uh. They're sort of a good thing? You kind of want them there. What you're talking about wanting will hurt your mesh in the long run.

What are you trying to do with that? Is it going in to Halo?

[neuro]

you don't want to remove those edges, even if you do, they'll still be there, they just won't be displayed.

as long as the surface is flat, it's fine (Assuming you want them flat)

if you REALLY want to remove them, just hit backspace (hold control + backspace to also remove the vertices associated with the edges)

[FreedomFighter7]

er, I don't want to remove them, I want to make them not visible, as they are really annoying on the wireframe and edged faces.

Not visible as in, they don't show up on wireframe, but show up as faces in realistic mode.

This is just for fun/personal learning, its not going in anything. I don't know how to do that anyhow.

[neuro]

learn to love the edges instead.

[neuro]

see, it's not that hard.

[Hunter]

Instead of showing screencaps of the viewport show wireframes, they will benefit more. You'd usually show renders without wireframe on with the final model, and to make sure there are no smoothing errors.

[FreedomFighter7]

Ok, but those last two were renders. I thought the viewport pics would be more useful, because you can see the wireframe on them, and its kind of hard for me to get a good render which showcases all of the markers features.

edit: for the record, they've all been renders, except the first one, because I wanted the problem easily visible.

[neuro]

1, i can't see a goddamn thing
2, for FUCK sake, hit the P-key, and stay dont post screenshots from an orthographic camera.

[FreedomFighter7]

Just who the hell pissed in your wheaties today?

[PopeAK49]

You obviously don't know neuro. Everyone pisses in his wheaties EVERY DAY!

[neuro]

that's not true, proof (http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?22063-GALLERY-Cagerrin-Forerunner-Erections-Galore/page13)

also freedom, your gun is absolutely horrendous, but that's fine, since you're new to this stuff and you're just starting out.
here's a tip:
hit the P-key, to go into perspective mode, delete that damn light you have in the scene, and make a screenshot in which we can actually see half a damn thing.

srsly, this is a PRO tip!
because i'm PRO!

[FreedomFighter7]

Horrendous in what way? Its shape, or my modelling? :P

[neuro]

both, and also the image itself.

[neuro]

still orthographic, still cant see shit.

try applying a normal material, and getting rid of any lights in your scene.
actually, donty even bother with that, just make a fucking printscreen -.-

[BobtheGreatII]

Hit "p" on your keyboard for perspective. Orthographic is a really annoying point of view. And do what Neuro said.

[PopeAK49]

You can improve it more by adding some smoothing groups.