Mat/Map browser - carnt see maps on sphere materials?

Hello all,

I'm a little confused by the material/map browser in 3DS Max 9.

As shown by the pic below a have open the;

architectual.materials.concrete.mat [the standard mats loaded into max 9] but for some reason I carnt see the maps on the spheres?

infact all the standard materials that have maps dont show up. But when the 'Maps' box in 'show' is ticked the maps do show up; as shown on the right hand side of the pic.

Is this normal? It is fustrating that I can not see these materials in there full glory. If I apply one of these to an object in my scene and render, it does render with the map on.

Can somebody please help me with this, Im sure its something very minor.

Many thanks

Anybody?? :-(

Sorry, must've missed this question.

I think you're trying to load materials in the wrong place. Are you clicking on the button that says "Standard" and trying to load the material library from there? If so, that's the wrong location. That button is for setting up your material shader. Try clicking on the button next to "Diffuse" and then load the "architectual.materials.concrete.mat" from there and you should have better luck viewing them.

Hi Cad64, Thanks for the reply!

I always load my mats from 'Get material' icon, and drag and drop as needed.

I have a good custom library set up by myself that works just fine.

One thing I have noticed is;

after dropping a 'architectual.materials.concrete.mat' material into the material editor and then in 'bitmap parameters' when I open the bitmap it does not go to the correct folder. I have configured the path, and Max obviously does know where to find the maps as they render ok. But they still dont show in the spheres visually. Mmm.

I will try what you have suggested once I get back onto Max!

Thanks