Each asset is written as a path to an external file on the hard drive. If this path is specified incorrectly, then when the scene is opened, this asset will not be loaded. Therefore, paths to assets (textures, proxy objects, etc.) must always (!) Be specified locally. A relative or local file path is a path that indicates the location of the file relative to where the project scene is located.
Example. There is a project scene D:\Project\Render\Test_Scene.max. A texture with a global path is loaded into this project D:\Project\Render\Sample.png. In the material, the local path to this texture will look very simple - Sample.png.
You can check the paths to assets manually, but if there are many of them, it is easier to use the Asset Tracking window, in which you can control all the assets in the scene.
If you put all the assets used in it (without subfolders) into one folder with the scene and specify the paths to these assets simply as the name of these files, then they will all be loaded into the project correctly.
Key requirements for any asset:
- All assets used in projects must be uploaded together with the scene (or scenes) to the cloud.
- The name of any asset must be in Latin letters without spaces (use underscore as a separator).
- In a project, the path to each asset must be local.
Assigning Relative Paths with Asset Tracking
Let's go back to 3Ds MAX and open the file from the folder that we specified as the target for the Resource collector.
Call the Asset Tracking window via File - Reference - Asset Tracking Toggle. Or by holding down the Ctrl + T keys.