I'm attempting to create a plug-in for 3D Studio Max 5.x that renders
in real time using DirectX.

I'm creating my plugin from the Renderer base class. I can create a
DirectX device and run through the renderer once. But if I try to
render a second time, whether it be in my renderer or another, I get a
message box with the following, "Error Creating Bitmap." Also the
viewports are blank afterwards.

This error only happens if I create a device with
IDirect3D9::CreateDevice. Otherwise it runs without any problems.

At first I thought that 3DS was losing its device and not resetting
it. But I get the same error if I reset 3DS or run 3DS in the software
graphics mode.

I've tried creating the device with 3DS' hwnd and also with a newly
created window with no success.

I tried to find a way to reset 3DS' graphics routines, but could only
find GetCOREInterface()->ForceCompleteRedraw(TRUE). And that didn't
work. Although drawing resumes in the viewports.

I found ID3DGraphicsWindow::GetDevice(). But I can't figure out how to
get to that method. It appears you can get to it if you're writing a
shader.

The problem happens with directx 9 or directx 8.1b.

I suspect that if I do my directx rendering in a seperate process that
it won't bother 3DS. I'd rather not do that because it would be ugly
and require some interprocess communications.

Just in case it's not clear what my question is: I'd like to know how
I can create and use an IDirect3DDevice9 within a 3DS renderer plugin.

I'm very new to 3DS plug-in development and would also appreciate any
comments - no matter how small - that might point me in the right
direction.

Thanks in advance.