I’ve got the exact same problem. the problem is not to render it out in another software, it’s when i try to create the displacement map in zbr.
The alpha just comes out plain gray. any suggestions?
Don’t know what to tell you folks other than it works for me.
Are you sure that they are UV coordinates applied to the obj? I don’t mean that to sound below you but one is never sure about the other posters level.
So is your detail minor or very exagerrated? If it’s minor then the map might look totally grey…but it’s really not. Can you post a pic of your model in ZB at the highest sub-d?
um… now i feel a bit stupid, i did the uv’s but never saved the file, when i opened zbr the next time i assumed all was ready to go :lol: .
My bad.
Thanks anyway
Don’t feel stupid it’s all part of the process, okay?
Learn and move on.
Well when in max, I unwrapped the model, saved the uvs and exported the obj with texture coordinates so it must be right? Also, I can render normal maps fine - it’s just the displacement maps that come out messed up. And also, there is lots of small detail but also lots of larger detail, it would definitely be visible. I know this because I applied the map to my models and just looks bloated with none of the detail I added.
when you do a uv check in zbrush do you see the uvs youve created in max?
just to make sure… you need to go down on your subd levels in order to get a good displacement map.
Yep, i’m at subD level 1, done uv check all is fine.
hmm,
i had the same problem. and solved it… thing is i dont know what i did anymore.
maybe i just restarted the program and tried an other mesh… did you try that, just to see if it is not that particular mesh that is giving you the problems.
ill keep thinking for you…
Definitely not the mesh, tried it on another one and the same thing happens.
Well, one other thought might be that you are driving the displacement map in Max too much. When you create the displacement map in Zbrush and go to the alpha tool roll out panel, at the bottom you should see an Alpha Depth Factor number…that number should be the number you input to drive your displacement in whatever proggie you’re in.
Ahh I dunno what to do man, this it totally crippling my workflow, here’s a displacement I just rendered (dsubpix = 2, map size = 512, smoothuv = on)… this doesn’t look right to me, not to mention the edges are totally screwed up.
Attachments
try deformation/unify and recalculate the displacement map
Nope, didn’t work…
ok.
first , you dont get an fully grey screen anymore. thats a good thing.
try a bigger displacement map… 2048 pix.
how did you do the displacement?
try Multi Displacement 3 under Zplugin.
do a R32 setting and use this code DE-LBEK-EAEAEA-R32
the edges seems not to big of a problem. i watched a Meat Meyers video and he had the same edge problems… seem that Zbrush makes the map a little bit bigger, so the egdes wont show up on your mesh.
Multi displacement exporter 3 crashes every time I try to create all and says there’s an error…
Got it sorted! Reinstalled Displacement map exporter 3 and now it works, huzzah! Thanks to everyone who kept helping me out, was greatly appreciated!
Great, glad to hear you are making strides forward.
Post some pics for us! 
One more thing - I have a proper displacement now, but when I apply it in 3dsmax no detail appears, just a wierd bloated mesh…
Have you tried a 32BIT to see if it is giving you the same problems? Can we see a screenshot of your seetings for the exporter in the alpha pallette?
I managed to get it looking alright, I had to play around with the displacement intensity in max to get it halfways decent. I’m aware max 9 has problems with displacements anway. I think i’m alright now!