Hey Frouad B
The Mankua plugin is for Max. I downloaded the demo and installed it but the demo will only let you render a normal Map off one of their supplied models. You can’t test it with a ZBrush model. 
Upham 
is there a way to view the tangent maps in zbrush, or do you have to quit out of zbrush to view the tangent map applied in real-time. it seems like a zbrush material to do this would be exeptionally usefull.
Thx Dave, I never tried the nvidia plug in (“dds” format) I will
UphRRam 
, yes I tried already that plug in… and the result on 3dsmax seems better than Zbrush, and normal map seems different than a map produced by Zb (colors I mean),
I someone have more experience about that, I’m listening.
thx .
Awesome looking work, would it be possible for you to post a zscript of it, or maybe just a quick process guide? Im really interested in how you made the cracks so sharp, and the smashed concrete. Ive tried to make something simaler, but i cant seem to get the results i want.
My understanding of things…
Greyscale images used as bumps in maya perturb the normals only out in the direction of the original normal the amount defined by the grey scale.
RGB normal maps use RGB to represent XYZ and thus the bump is not only in/out.
Displacements either move mesh points (lightwave???) or add enough extra mesh points to represent the details and then move them at render time or move pixels at render time (subpixel displacements, mental ray, renderman, etc.).
Also, file nodes in maya have the filtering set really high by default (1.0) I like to always set texture map’s filtering to 0.01 or 0.001.
At leasts that’s what I know.
g
quick Q from a nubi
how u apply Normal maps in Maya, do u need aspecial plugin for that
thanks
Yeah you do. You can go to www.drone.org to get maya plugs. I think version six (Maya) will generate Normal Maps but it still doesn’t use them in their standard renderer. 
Here is a test render of a normal map
rendered on the same geo inside Maya.
The normal map was rendered Turtle Beta
( new render for Maya illuminatelabs.com ).
The normal map drives a per pixel effect that
bends the normal at for each pixel based on the map. Gives some nice detail without the
micro poly displacement render times.
Dave 
Never heard about turtle before. HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED THIS ??? !!! gonna give it a try ASAP ! Thanks for the trick.
Have anyone tried the normal map generator that comes with Maya 6 in standard yet ?
(lighting/shading > Transfer Surface Information)
Hi Dave,
Just wondering what options you used for this regarding painting maps and then displacement problems on ~90 degree edges. You have painted a large crater right on the corner edges, below the large area, and it seems to have worked fine. Whenever I use projection master, or sculpting in zbrush the edges (in mycase 3 edges bevelled to subdivide nicely) interesect, and displacement calculation is bad.
Thanks
Ben
Thats a good point, details like that what " go in" to the geometry will interesct with the low poly, and you will have probs with the normal map it generates. Do you just size your cage right up with the push tool?
This is great thread! Thanks for all the explanations everyone. This stuff is actually making sense to a noob like me.
–roger
Been a while since I caught up with this post but my workflow was :
Geometric shape in Maya (cube for instnace)
Import to ZB and use projection master to push in along edges with rocky alpha
Pick up PM (but turn on ONLY deformation NO normalised or fade)
Now you have object with PM result in edit mode
Go to level 1 and calculate disp map on this object (do NOT switch to original mesh)
Export lvl 1 mesh as above and use this as the new base mesh in Maya.
So I ended up replacing my models with new ZB lvl 1 instead, you will notice ZB modofies your original surface lvl 1 when you do such big sculpt changes higher up, this is to accomodate the big difference