Fixing Redshift material previews black

In this article, let’s talk about an issue which makes Redshift users frustrated: Redshift material previews black. What is the cause of the issue and how to fix it.

Why are Redshift material previews black and how to fix it?

The way you configure Material Preview in Redshift Preferences usually can cause black material preview or not. You can check how it’s configured by going to Redshift menu > Preferences > Redshift > check Material Previews like the photo below:

Fixing Redshift material previews black 1

Redshift ‘Material Preview’ settings consist of Off, When Renderer is Idle, Suspend Render, Background Render. Nowadays, the default material refresh mode is Background Render and you should make sure to set it to avoid material previews black.

- - - Off: All material preview requests are ignored. If Cinema 4D requests a preview, it will display a black image.
    - When Renderer is Idle: Previews are generated only when the renderer is idle. If no Picture Viewer (PV) renders are active, or if the Interactive Preview Region (IPR) rendering is paused, previews are rendered. If the renderer is not available and a cached image from a previous render exists, Redshift uses it and adds a red square in the corner to indicate it might be outdated.
    - Suspend Render: Any active IPR or PV render is temporarily paused to allow for batches of previews to render. This may cause delays in active renders, depending on the number of previews needed and how long it takes for the original render to resume.
    - Background Render: Previews are rendered in parallel in the background using the CPU only. Active renders are not affected, and there should be minimal performance impact. However, memory usage might increase slightly while previews are rendering. You should set material preview in this mode.

If it’s because of the Material Preview setting that makes black materials and you change it to a more appropriate setting that updates the previews regularly, they will need to be refreshed to update the change.

To refresh the previews:

- - - Make a change to the material itself, or
    - Force an update: in the Cinema 4D Material Manager, choose Material > Render All Materials

Fixing Redshift material previews black 2

This will ensure that all material previews are updated correctly after adjusting the settings.

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