Trouble with the Multi Map Exporter yet again... [Solved]

[system]

I’m having issues with the MME exporter yet again… puuhh. Last time I talked to support, was because my mesh exploded after each export, which they fixed by sending me a patch. Now I got new issues (maybe they should hire me as a bugtester).

1. First problem I figured out by myself, and that is that you have to a slight margin from the border edges of your polygon uv’s to the edge. Or you get no displacement in some cases, or a displacement that’s cut off far from the edges. There is a quite easy workaround for this when you are aware of it, but it means that you can’t use the polyPlane.ZTL that you find in the Lightbox window.

2. To explain my workflow; I want to run out several displacement patterns from Zbrush. Rotate, move, duplicate and combine them in Nuke and use the combined result as a displacement in Maya. It should be able to map onto any flat or slightly curved objects. Seems simple enough, right?

• I started off with a polyPlane from Maya with slightly scaled in uv’s.
• I make a morph target at SubDiv level 1: “Morph Target” --> “StoreMT”
• Divide the mesh 6-7 times with “Smt” and “Suv” OFF.
• Do all my sculpting on the top SubDiv level.
• Go over to Multi Map Exporter and set all settings as follows:

Press export and this is the result when rendering in Maya.

Firstly the Morph Target doesn’t work (see the dent where the blue arrow is), meaning that the to get a correct displacement I need to use the now modified SubDiv level 1 mesh. Which is not an alternative, since the displacement is supposed to be used on a variety of flat surfaces. I’ve read over the documentation regarding Morph Target in MME a number of times, but can’t understand what I’ve done wrong. Maybe some clever minds can tell me.

Secondly I end up with a displacement map that’s slightly cut off and stretched at the edges (check the red arrows). I’ve checked the map in Nuke and stuff at the edges is gone. And it of course looks the same when I render it in Maya. If I compare the displaced surface to the exported subDiv 7 mesh, there is a distinct difference. After exporting the map, I’ve exported out the SubDiv 1 mesh back into Maya, compared the original and the imported one from Zbrush and the uv’s are identical. Meaning that I believe the problem might be residing in the multi map exporter.

For a long time I have been doing my best to embrace Zbrush, with it’s little quirks and strange workflows, but now I’m starting to get seriously annoyed.
Any help please?

Attachments

[marcus_civis]

If you are using the Switch MT option you need to make sure that it’s set up according to the documentation:

Switch MT: This button only applies if you are using an original base mesh from
another application and wish to generate maps for that. It assumes that you have stored
a morph target before re-importing the original mesh. Displacement/Normal maps will
be generated and then the plugin will switch the morph target before moving to a higher
subdivision level for generating texture, ambient occlusion or cavity maps.
Before starting the map export operation, each subtool must be at the subdivision
level where the morph target is stored.

A basic workflow would be:

1. Go to subdivision level 1.
2. Store a Morph Target by pressing Tool >> Morph Target >> Store MT.
3. Import original mesh.
4. Set the plugin options, making sure the ‘Switch MT’ button is on.
5. Press ‘Create All Maps’ to start plugin operation.

The Switch MT option has no effect if no morph target has been stored.

[system]

Hi Marcus, thanks for taking the time to answer!

The morph target worked! The only thing I did wrong was to increase the SubDivs on the model before export. As I thought it wouldn’t work otherwise.

But still no further on the cut off edges. Any solution to this, or is it just a bug that needs to be reported?

[system]

Okay, so after further investigation I found the solution to both problems.

1. Morph target: The only thing I did wrong was to jump up to the highest subDiv level before exporting MME. As I thought this was necessary for the plug-in to know which subDiv level I wanted in the final map. Thanks Marcus!

2. After unckecking “Adaptive” in the MME export options I no longer have any distorted and cut off edges! This must be a bug, or what?!?
   Final result. No dents, and no cut off edges…

[marcus_civis]

tarjep,

That’s great, thanks for letting us know. Interesting about Adaptive. I know most people avoid it as it makes the map generation take longer with little obvious benefit but I’ve not seen that particular result before. Anyway I’ll pass your findings along to the developers.

Thanks,

[system]

That would be great, thanks Marcus!