Verge3D for 3ds Max: Viewport and Render Preview — Soft8Soft
Description: Learn how to configure 3ds Max viewport to match Verge3D look and feel, and how to use Arnold rendering and the ActiveShade feature to obtain a reference image.

# Viewport and Render Preview / 3ds Max

From this guide you can learn how to configure 3ds Max viewport to match Verge3D look and feel, and how to use Arnold rendering and the ActiveShade feature to obtain a reference image.

- Viewport Settings
- Color Management
- Arnold/Scanline Rendering
- ActiveShade Mode

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## Viewport Settings

To enable better viewport preview in 3ds Max, switch from Standard to High Quality in the viewport settings:

Click Realistic Materials with Maps in the Materials submenu (this operation is required every time you add a new material):

Enable Environment Background in the Viewport Background submenu under Default Shading:

The above-mentioned settings are pre-enabled for the default cube project.

Viewport shading, however, does not always appear to provide an accurate approximation of the in-browser rendering - for instance, environment reflections ignore normal maps in the viewport, etc.

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## Color Management

As of version 2025, 3ds Max uses the OCIO color management mode by default (with ACEScg color space):

This system is not supported in Verge3D, since it requires more powerful GPUs and not quite feasible for the real-time browser rendering.

The OCIO will make your scenes look darker in 3ds Max viewport compared to Verge3D:

To switch back to the regular gamma (sRGB-based) color management, open the 3ds Max Color Management Settings dialog using the Rendering → Color Management... menu option:

In the Color Management Mode drop-down select Gamma Workflow:

If the Apply Color Management Settings automatically checker is set, the new mode will be applied automatically. So it's save to just close the Color Management Settings dialog.

The Gamma Workflow is pre-enabled for the default cube project.

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## Arnold/Scanline Rendering

Verge3D rendering strives to be as close as possible to Arnold render if physical materials are used, and to Scanline render if standard materials are used. So you can preview your scenes in 3ds Max without exporting for quicker tweaking.

To select the renderer, click Render Setup... in the Rendering menu (F10):

In the window use the Renderer dropdown to switch between Arnold and Scanline:

To render a scene, click Render (Shift+Q):

Subsequently you can use the Render button to repeat your render:

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## ActiveShade Mode

For faster iterations, you can use the ActiveShade mode which automatically updates the render every time you modify a scene (works best with Arnold render).

You can enable ActiveShade in the Render Setup... window:

After that you'll be able to switch a viewport to ActiveShade mode:

This way you can achieve a better approximation of what you get in the browser, at a near real-time speed.

## Got Questions?

Feel free to ask on the forums!