3ds Max 9® Service Pack

This file contains information regarding known issues.

Follow this link to the Autodesk Media and Entertainment Support web site to get the latest
information: http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-support

Installing the 3ds Max 9 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

• You must be logged into the system as an administrator in order to install the 3ds Max 9 Service
Pack 2.

• The original 3ds Max 9 installer (found on the product DVD or CD, or deployment image on your
network) may be required while applying this update. If this occurs and you don't have convenient
access to your original Product DVD or CD, you can download the full trial version of 3ds Max 9
from the following site: http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-trial

• This 3ds Max 9 Service Pack can be applied to 3ds Max 9 English only. The install program will
not install over a previous version. (Example: 3ds Max 8 or 3ds Max 7.5).

• The 3ds Max 9 Service Pack should be installed on all network rendering servers running 3ds
Max 9.

• Instructions for Network Deployment of the 3ds Max 9 Service Pack are located at the end of this
document.

• Defects with this service pack should be reported to Autodesk Media and Entertainment at:
http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-support > Other resources > Defect Report Submission Form
Refer to http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-support for more information on available technical
support resources.

• Please note that the file names for the 32-bit and 64-bit installers are different:
o 3dsMax9_SP2_32bit.zip for 32 bit.
o 3dsMax9_SP2_64bit.zip for 64 bit.
o Extract the files in the zip file of your choice, and double-click on the Setup.exe file.

• If you have hotfixes for 3ds max 9 installed, you must manually uninstall them prior to installing
3ds max 9 SP 2.

Uninstalling 3ds Max 9 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

• Beginning with Windows XP SP2, you can uninstall the service pack from the Add/Remove
Programs panel:

a. Open the Add/Remove Programs panel ( Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove
Programs )
b. Make sure the "Show Updates" checkbox, located in the upper right corner of the panel, is
checked.
 c. Select the "service pack 2" item located under the "Autodesk 3ds Max 9" item.
d. Hit the Remove button

• On Windows Vista, please do the following:

o Open the Programs and Features Control Panel
o On the left side, click on View Installed Updates
o Select Service Pack 2 under Autodesk 3ds max 9, and click on the Uninstall button.

Note that in some cases, the service pack installer might request the original Autodesk 3ds Max 9
media in order to successfully complete the un-installation.

Here is a list of the issues addressed by these Service Packs.

Issues addressed by this Service Pack:

ANIMATION
• Fixed a problem that prevented keyframes from Custom Attributes displayed in the Timeline from
updating correctly.
• Fixed a problem when wiring animation layer weights together.

BACKBURNER
• Fixed a problem with “Assign to Selected Job”. It now works correctly.
• A limitation where slaves could only pick jobs from submitting machines that had exactly the
same operating system has been removed. Now, any workstation can submit jobs that can be
picked by any slave, regardless of the Operating System (32-bit or 64-bit Windows).
IMPORTANT: Please be aware that mixing slaves with different operating systems in the same
job is NOT recommended, and can lead to unexpected results.
Here are the details regarding this fix:

Setting the Platform (32-bit or 64-bit) of Your Network Render

You can now set the platform for the network rendering of your scene in the Advanced Settings of
the Network Job Assignment dialog, from the command line, and using MaxScript. Use these
options when you want to render your scene on a different platform (either 32- or 64-bit) from the
platform being used to create your scene. This is particularly useful in situations where you are
working on a given platform which differs from the platform of the render farm. The most
consistent results are achieved when you submit jobs that are created and rendered on the same
platform (32-bit or 64-bit).

Note: These are advanced options provided to accommodate specific render farm configurations.
By default these options are set to the most compatible platform that avoids rendering to
platforms where data-loss may result.

Network Job Assignment Dialog

Submit Job As radio button — Use this button in the Advanced Settings dialog to select the desired
rendering platform.

See the “Network Job Assignment Dialog” topic in the Online Help for further information.

Command Line
You can also achieve the same functionality from the command line with the following:

3dsmaxcmd –platform:<32/64>

See the “Command-Line Rendering Switches” topic in the Online Help for further information.

MaxScript
If you want to perform the platform switch with MaxScipt you can use the new optional parameter that was
added to the Connect function of the NetManager class:

<netmanager>.Connect
<enum>connectMode
<string>id
[port:<enum>]
[platform:<enum>]

Where the platform can be one of {#32 | #64 | #default }. All jobs created and submitted from this
NetManager will match the specified platform (or use the default platform if it is unspecified).

See the “NetRender Interface” topic in the MaxScript online help for further information.
BATCH RENDER
• Fixed a problem with stitch rendering. Strips are now saved correctly.

BIPED/CS
• Fixed a problem with FBX imports onto biped.
• Fixed a problem that prevented .BIP files from being loaded onto X-ref’ed Bipeds.
• Fixed a problem with keyframe selections in the Dopesheet that led to stability problems.
• Fixed a problem where crowd simulations were solved in the wrong plane.
• Fixed a problem with Euler controllers that could lead to interpolation issues.
• Fixed a problem that prevented Bipeds from displaying trajectories. This was actually a “feature”
in previous releases. It was determined that using 3ds max trajectories display on biped limbs
(not biped trajectories) could lead to stability problems, and thus they were disabled. Some users
requested these were enabled again, so a new .INI switch has been added to enable this
functionality. To be able to use 3ds max trajectories display, add the following entry to your
3dsmax.ini file (you may edit your .ini files at your own risk):

[Trajectory]
ShowBiped=1

• Using Render Presets on a file where a biped was present would result in a corrupt file when
saved. This has been fixed.

CONTROLLERS
o Fixed a problem with animation layers where wiring the output of a layer would not
update the dependant.

DISPLAY
• There was a problem where turning on Vertex tick display and Backface culling could lead to a
crash. This has been fixed.
• Fixed some display issues with Hidden Line display mode.
• Fixed some display artifacts on objects that had animated topology changes.
• Fixed a problem that prevented hidden sub-objects from not being displayed when viewed in
Wireframe mode.
• Fixed a problem that changed the normals at the base of face extrusions.
• Fixed a problem with DDS support in Dx10 under Windows Vista.
• Fixed a problem that prevented the max viewports from drawing properly after startup under
Windows Vista.
• Fixed a memory leak in the Dx material that was triggered by Multi/Sub-Object materials and the
0x001 and 0x003 parsers.

EDITABLE POLY
• Fixed a problem in ePoly objects that could cause topology changes when files were saved and
re-opened.
• Fixed a problem that prevented some legacy files from loading onto 3ds max 9.

EDITABLE MESH
• Fixed a problem that caused all normals to have wrong directions.

FILE I/O
• Fixed a problem where a file path of a file imported through FileLink would not update correctly
when the file was moved.
 • Fixed a problem that would set the shininess value to 100 in materials imported from DWG files.
• Fixed an issue with the LandXML importer that was preventing it from working.
• LandXML import would randomly fail. This has been corrected.

HAIR
• Fixed a problem that led to stability problems when rendering hair presets.
• Fixed a problem when rendering hair with identical values for Root Thickness and Tip Thickness.
• Fixed a problem that occurred when rendering reflections in a scene where the Hair render effect
had been deleted.
• Fixed a problem where changing the Tip Thickness value continuously in between renderings
could lead to loss of reflections or a crash.
• Fixed a stability problem that affected styling on spline objects with only 1 spline sub-object.
• Fixed a problem that prevented Hair from completely rendering long hair with many segments.
• Fixed a problem that prevented Spherical collisions from working.
• Fixed a problem that could crash max when rendering some Hair Sample Scenes in the 64-bit
3ds max 9 build.
• Fixed a low ceiling memory limit in the tile renderer.

INSTALLER
• Installing updates would remove existing flags set in the program launch shortcuts. This has been
fixed.

LIGHTS
• Fixed a UI component mismatch in the IES Sky light.

LOAD/SAVE ANIMATION

• Fixed a problem that could decrease the stability of load/save animation.

• Fixed a problem that prevented list controllers from showing up in the incoming list.

LOCALIZATION/GLOBALIZATION
• Some hair presets would not work in the English version of 3ds max when running under French
or German localized Operating Systems. This has been fixed.
• 3ds max files saved in folders with double-byte characters in their names could get corrupted or
suffer from compatibility issues. This has been corrected.

MAPS

• Fractal mode in the cellular texture was not working correctly. This has been fixed.

MATERIALS

• Fixed a problem in the Arch&Design material that caused shadows to work incorrectly. This was
affecting cutouts.
• Fixed a problem in the DirectX material that prevented it from using any mapping channel higher
than 1.

MAX SCRIPT
• Encrypted MAXScripts now use a much more robust encryption scheme.
MENTAL RAY

• We fixed a compatibility issue between the fast rasterizer and the mr sun and sky shader.
• Fixed a compatibility problem between the new FG interpolation mode and the Fast SSS shader.
• Fixed a performance issue with accessing IES light profiles.
• There was a problem with the number of satellites available in multi-core or hyper-threaded
machines. This has been corrected.

MOTION MIXER
• Fixed a problem would prevent Custom Attributes from mapping correctly when performing a
default mapping.
• Fixed a problem where a Hold/Fetch operation could break Max Objects in a mix.
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with a checkbox in the Add Max Objects dialog.

OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Fixed a problem that was causing DxDDS.bmi errors on startup under Windows Vista.
• 3ds max would display white viewports on startup under Windows Vista. This has been corrected.
• 3ds max would not run under Windows Vista when the UAC feature was on. This has been
corrected.

REACTOR
• Fixed a problem that prevented vertices from showing up in FFD’s used by softbodies.

RENDERING
• Fixed a problem where logarithmic exposure would output negative values for color components
greater than ~0.95.
• Fixed a problem that could lead to decreased stability when rendering displacement maps.
• Fixed a problem that was forcing render output filenames to user lowercase characters only, and
completely changing double-byte characters.

RENDER TO TEXTURE
• Fixed a problem that caused accuracy errors in the 64-bit build of 3ds max 9.

SDK

• Fixed an issue with IKControl that prevented forward kinematic transforms from solving correctly.
• Fixed a problem that could lead to MAXScript exceptions in the Render To Texture and Named
Selection Sets dialogs.
• Fixed a performance issue with selecting animated controls in the layer control system.
• Fixed a memory leak in the viewport code.
• Fixed a scene notification explosion problem that could lead to hangs when performing a Save
Selected operation.

UV UNWRAP
• Fixed a few small issues with packing UV’s.

How to deploy the SP2 to multiple machines on a network

Please refer to the Network Administrator Guide included in the DVD for more information.
Known Issues:
File I/O:
• Files saved in 3ds max 9 can grow in size when compared to previous versions of 3ds max.

Operating Systems:
• There is a refresh problem with the Welcome Screen when running DirectX on Windows Vista
that can cause the Close button to not be visible. Resizing the dialog will refresh the window.

Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, and 3ds Max are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the U.S.A.
and/or other countries. Microsoft and DirectX are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other brand
names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders."
3dsmax9_SP2_readme.rtf

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