File bought and paid for, but cannot seem to be working.

Hi,
by the description of this product it seems that file is ment to be rendered with Vray renderer. Do you have Vray installed on your computer?

i bought it thinking i could edit with Sketch up and asking my friends to convert the file for me

Are you sure? As far as i know 3ds max is available only for windows. How did you run it then?

I see. In that case if your friend doesn't have Vray installed then he won't be able to convert materials, only geometry. He can install Vray demo though, which is free and then try to convert scene.

You're welcome :]

you need V-Ray 3.0 renderer is the reason why the lighting doesn't work

Lol, you don't have vray????
You can't see the materials VARY in Default rendering !
advice...use:
3ds max 2014 or +
V-Ray 3.0 or +

Things like this and the help you get from fellow artists is why CGT is awesome!

As a 3ds max user I can also confirm my colleagues here, the lights used in this scene are not native to 3ds max, that's why the lights are rendered in viewport as dummy objects (simple placeholder/helper) and scene renders black.

You indeed do need to have the plug-in installed (V-Ray 3 in this case) or redo the render specific settings in your host application (place new host specific lights and setting them up + use shaders supported by the renderer you are currently using).

As far as I know conversion + preserving the renderer specific settings is not an option in this case.
However, I don't know if Vray 3 for 3ds max is compatible with Vray 3 for Sketchup (I use Octane render for some time now)?

If it does, then it probably has some export function in the Vray user interface to export out materials and lighting (to some file format)? In this case use 3ds max export function to save scene to FBX or OBJ (for getting the 3D data out), and use Vray 3 export function to get the render settings out.

But again render specific settings will be lost in the conversion if no render specific export functions are available.

Hope this gets you anywhere, keep us updated please ;-)

@Andrew :) :) ! Attention ! Vray for 3ds max is NOT compatible with Vray for Sketchup!!!

Also the lights have included the IE effect. Can you confirm?