Substance in 3ds Max 2.4.0

[Galen Helfter]

Hello everyone,

Today we have released Substance in 3ds Max 2.4.0, which is a release containing some large improvements and changes with parameter blocks and internal data.

2.4.0 Release:

• Removed support for 3ds Max 2018. The API functionality in 3ds Max needed for the main parameter block changes were added in 3ds Max 2019, and thus require that to be the minimum version.
• Added a set of over 20 sbsar files from Substance Source. These materials are available in the install directory, under the sbsars folder.
• Changed the parameter block descriptors to be transient and not saved with the scene. You can now merge scenes together and save them, and 3ds Max will properly load them, resolving any issues with being unable to load parameter blocks that existed in prior versions of the 3ds Max plugin.

Known Issues:

• If you load an old scene containing Substance materials that have keyframes on their inputs, and then open the curve editor, 3ds Max will crash. A workaround is to open the scene, save a new copy, restart Max and then load the newly saved scene. The issue only occurs when going from 2.3.4 or before scenes to 2.4.0, not with scenes saved with the new plugin.
• Unfortunately, with how the parameter block changes work, any previously 'broken' scene cannot be recovered. However, no new broken scenes will be created.

This version is released for 3ds Max 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Cheers,
Galen Helfter

[thorsten_1]

downgraded again, cause i cannot load my sbar files anymore (in fresh new created max files)... crashes instant...
these are only working with loading old max files.. sorry

[FncFuentes]

Just the opposite in my case: I can't open previous scenes that version 2.3.2 of the plugin loads just fine. With the new version, 3ds max 2020 crashes instantly.
Of course, I've downgrade back to v.2.3.2 until just today it failed to load a scene I have been working with and saved yesterday, without adding any additional sbsar to it. The "parameter block" error pops out instead.

What I'm realizing to this date is that including any of the substance plugin in my scenes is almost suicidal and I'm thinking of recovering all the old scenes I have with substances in it and baking their maps instead. Fortunately, I preserve in my hard disk several of the previous versions of the plugin. Anything is better than losing my old work because of a plugin.

[cjwidd]

I'm thinking of recovering all the old scenes I have with substances in it and baking their maps instead.

This is probably the best solution at the moment