Is there a way to tell Zbrush that I want the color 127, 127, 127 to be neutral when I am creating displacement maps? And if so does this need to be done before sculpting?
You don’t need to do anything before sculpting - the value is just to do with how the maps are generated - but the default setting is for mid gray. You can change the mid point by adjusting the Tool>Displacement Map>Mid slider value. You may need to create a displacement map first before the slider becomes enabled - simply adjust and then create a new displacement map. But the default setting (.5) is correct for most situations.
But note that ZBrush displacement maps are 16bit or 32bit, and the value 127, 127, 127 relates to 8bit images so you need to be careful how you measure the gray value. If you load a displacement map into Photoshop and use the color picker on the gray background the value you get will depend on your Gray value Color Settings in Preferences. Typically this is set to a Dot Gain of 20%, an adjustment related to how an image would print. This will give a value of 147 for the displacement background. To see the true value you need to change the Gray setting to match your monitor gamma - on Windows this is usually 2.2.
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Thank you so much Marcus! 