GMAX Crashing When Selecting Material Library

[Guest]

Lastnight, everything was working just fine...This afternoon, I began working on my little Socata again, and suddenly GMAX is crashing with a non-explained fatal error everytime I select the Material Library, which locks up the 'puter so hard it requires a cold boot to get it going again.After many frustrating attempts to localize the problem, it is clearly NOT related to my a/c's file(s), because it will do the same thing with any file gmax or 3ds import.It will do the same thing even if I try to apply a texture to a simple box or sphere.In desperation, I d/l'ed the entire GMAX install package from discreet, uninstalled GMAX, deleted the entire leftbehind folder(s) and done a complete, new install.Having done this twice, I've still got this durned problem. Has anyone any clue how to fix this?TIA

[Guest]

Well, after tearing my heart out over this stupid GMAX crashing problem... you already know what I've tried... I found out from the GMAX support forum what the hell the problem is...Are you ready? Hold on now, you ain't gonna believe this!!!..........................It's a freaking BUG in GMAX that causes the Material Library to CRASH on Sundays!!!The "solution" is to set the computer's clock to another day of the week!I'll bet the programmer's favorite song is "Never on a Sunday!" I've just wasted six precious hours on this stupid, idiotic problem.

[Guest PhLem]

Well, that is new for me. Don't forget to thank the guys at discreet.I am glad to hear the problem is solved. Hang in there man.Udo.:-wave

[Guest]

Yep, it's a well known bug. I'd expect it to be fixed in the next release of gMax. I've heard that they've been quite busy with new releases of 3DS Max and Plasma and that focus will shift to gMax once they're through that. I'd expect that won't be too long in the future now. You can get around it by never using the material navigator, just the material editor.Have funFinn

[Guest cwright]

Bill, some people discovered this some time ago and I could demonstrate it every time. In fact I was going to tell you about it, but then I saw your second post. It's interesting that Discreet have confirmed this, particularly as it's pretty embarrassing. It strongly implies that their testers and designers don't work on weekends - or more specifically, on Sundays! Best regards, Chris

[Guest]

> It's interesting that Discreet have confirmed this, >particularly as it's pretty embarrassing. >> It strongly implies that their testers and designers don't >work on weekends - or more specifically, on Sundays! Thanks, Chris, Finn and Udo for the response...After nearly thirty years of being in the computer hardware/software field, this is the strangest problem I believe I've ever encountered!What makes it truly odd, is that there is nothing in the program, save the animation routines, that are time-based! If anything, one would expect the animation routine to be effected.No, quite frankly this points more to some programmer's rather sick attempt at being a joker.

[Guest Milton]

And to that I would have to agree (after 30 years in the Info Systems field).I think we all have wasted countless hours on this one, I surely have.I wonder where that programmer is working today... ;-)Milton

[Guest cwright]

Bill, it has been suggested that at one stage there was a time-limited version of Gmax and maybe the code got forgotten and mutated a bit. But it's certainly the strangest bug I've come across! Best regards, Chris