Troubleshooting questions regarding the Rendering ZBrush Displacement-Maps In External Renderers should be posted in here.
Hello,
I’m trying to render in Blender with both internal renderer and Yafray.
First I use a python script to import .OBJ mesh.
Next I adjust the UV mapping, because it needs some vertical flip and some scaling.
Next I set ON the subdivision surface level 1.
At the end, I created a material, with a displacement texture.
And no results for the moment. Any idea?
Rendering in C4d as cornel discribes.
I had to flip vertically.
I am getting banding with the tiff and C4D is saying its an 8bit image… 
I’ve got Cinema 4D CE+ and I was wondering if it would be possible to get results like that with it’s renderer or am I wastin’ my time? If it can’t I might look into a nice renderman renderer or see if Blender/Yafray might do the trick…I hope to get C4D working though I love that app. 
I’ll keep plugging away and post my results later.
pnoland
hi, i am on older version of cinema, namely 4dce6, and i cannot even import the obj. just the material appears, nothing else. (and i DO know how to import obj, i did several times before without problems).
then i had idea to import model in zbrush 1.55b (i am on mac) to export it again as .obj, and then zbrush crashed !! . my first crash ever with zbrush 
… any tips ?
MTB - I failed miserably with Cinema until I read Cornels post. It all works for me now with 8.5 Might be worth opening the displacement map in an image editor and resaving? Failing that try downloading again?
Pnoland - I’m using 8.5 base app and as far as I know the renderer is nearly identical to CE/XL6 you should get equally good results I would think!
I just tried it in CE+ and you can flip the displacement map but I can’t find any way to adjust the contrast. You’ll need to increase the contrast in Photoshop or similar.
Kokoro Like I said above I’ve just tried it in CE+ (identical to XL6) and it imported fine. Maybe try running it through another 3d app or try downloading again?
Baz
Thanks a lot Baz! I got it working after seeing that Trurl edited the displacment map in photoshop first. I’m happy as hell now. 
I posted my results on the other thread.
ola tod@s…trabajo en LightWave7.5
mi experiencia con el map dispacements no ha sido del todo buena…a medias pude mapear
despues de girar la imagen verticalmente en photoshop pero el resultado en LW fue muy regular…si alguien trabaja con LW por favor postee su experiencia…para intercambiar ideas…un saludo 
I think the problem also lies in C4D not properly handling the positive and negative data…I will experiment more. C4D renders just look bloated. You can see this in the eye, nose bridge, nostral, and inner ear areas when comparing to Pixolators original.
[quote]
-subtract 0,627 from that value … this seems to be necessary because “no displacement” does not seem to be 0,5 in the provided texture, but 0,627 instead
[quote]
^^ from rrays post, How is this value derived thank you.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>rray, what are your setting for displacement in xsi ? are you using fine displacement ? i have a lot of trouble getting my disp maps working in xsi 
( a lot of mental ray crash )<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes, it’s fine displacement, here’s the exact settings:
Render Tree:
Image->Color2Scalar->Scalar_Math_Basic(Subtract 0.627)->Scalar_Math_Basic(Multiply 10)->Material displacement slot
EnvImage->Environment->Material environment slot
Dirtmap->Phong ambient->Material
Pixolator’s Image
Convert to 16-bit RGB
Flip Vertically
Save as TIF
OBJ’s Geometry Approximation
Subdivisions OGL Level: 2
Subdivisions Render Level: 2
Max Displacement: 4
Displacement Length: 0.1
View Dependent checked
Sharpness: 0
Subdivision Limit: Min=0 Max=3
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>RRay, your settings are as close as match as I have seen. Very acceptable solution. Fantastic render! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thanks, Continuumx!
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>This is important, why this value rray how did you derive it ? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I picked up the color from an empty area of the displacement map tif (in photoshop). It gave me 160 for the rgb values (instead of 128 as I expected).
So the 0,627 derive from that (160/255(full color)
Altough I’m still not sure if empty areas = no displacement… but it looks ok
hey guys how come every1 keeps saying that in maya u should add a disp approx as well as a surf approx when in every test i try the surf approx overrides the disp rendering it useless??
disp approx seems to only work when ure not using a surf approx node…
Not 100% sure I care since I love and use Vray, but what they heck, I’m curious. Does anyone know if you can force Mental Ray in Max to obey the blur setting in the material editor? Or is it permanently stuck using the default value of 1.0 even if you try to change it?
MTB - You’re right, I haven’t been that critical of my results, I’m just pleased I can get close without rendering for hours! With the addition of Mme Sadie’s Normal map plug I think we’re going to get excellent results without micropoly displacement
By the way I just noticed that my copy of Cinema does consider that the map is 8 bit! Sorry about that. There’s obviously something not right! - Baz
Edit - Aurick has posted some excellent results with Cinema 8.5 on the main thread! Very little/no banding or bloat! Key seems to be using Sat sampling with a little blur.
could you please post the versions of the tools you used for your testimages with air? i tried it with maya5.0, air2.7 and liquid1.5.5, but i’m not even getting a valid rib exported from liquid. (ERROR: “test_perspShape.1.rib” (60): Incorrect parameters --> SubdivisionMesh).
i am still struggling with even get the obj. model into cinema. i just recieve a standard material. i redownloaded the whole thing and tried again. but same.
i tried importing the obj model into zbrush (1.bbb ;)). it crashed. not only that. it freezed my whole mac, and i had some pain to restart it. that never happened before. :mad:
now what is that obj. is is a new format ?
i see other cinema users with newer versions can handle that, so i would appreciate information what format the file is.
Hi Kokoro, sorry your having problems! The model is just a wavefront obj, nothing special or new about it
It works for me in Cinema6 as I said before, I’m on a Mac too so that isn’t the problem.
Have you got UVMapper? It’s free if you havent
You could try running the model through that to see if it makes any difference. I don’t know what else to suggest. Hope you get it sorted! - Baz
Why does Zbrush apparently take the mid point as 0.627 and not 0.5 . rray confirmed this by eyedropping a neutral area with Photoshop. Can the devs confirm if this is intented a bug, or just incrrect to eyedrop a neutral area?
Thanks
I just checked a couple maps myself. Photoshop keeps saying 50% for neutral greys here. Convert to 16-bit RGB and get 16384/16384/16384 (128/128/128 in 8-bit). Maybe your color management settings are doing something to the file? I have PS set so that I can tell it not to color manage my map files when I load them, and don’t embed profiles when I save them again.
Edit: Or maybe a setting in ZB got changed from it’s default?
Okay i’m going to check my photoshop settings.
This is from the TIF file provided, maybe im being thick but i cant figure out the grey at the pink dot is at 62.7% thanks.