Questions and Troubleshooting for ZBrush 4R3

[Gareee]

Yep, the material information in a mtl file. (Actually obj files contain material info as well, but the mtl includes references to any textures you had loaded.

My goal was to create low poly objects that I could use in zbrush with micromesh-> obj, and then export that as an obj to be used in lightwave and poser.

As it is now, I can’t really use any object that has more than one material, because zbrush looses the materials, and lumps them all into just one, “defaultmat”. (For example, a hammer with could use the same texture map, but would have a material for the wooden handle, and a seperate material for the metal head.)

In zbrush, these would be seperate subtools with different material settings. In lightwave, Vue, poser, ect these would be one obj with two materials. (Not groups… groups would be used for rigging something to animate.)

I’m sure there has to be a way to retain multiple materials on obj import… converting materials to polygroups (and exporting the obj and using the polygroups as materials) would make the most sense.

[Gareee]

Ok, If got a partial solution, but also a feature enhancement request for the dev team. (Maybe someone has a plugin that can resolve this?)

When zbrush imports a wavefront format obj file, it can convert materials to polygroups. However, it cannot import the groups at all.

When you export the same object, zbrush converts the polygrouping into wavefront grouping, NOT materials, which it had imported and converted.

Ideally for best compatibility, zbrush should retain both materials and grouping of wavefront format obj files, which have been an industry standard for years now.

A possible resolution might be to have an option to import the object with materials being converted to polygroups, and wavefront groups being converted to subtools named by group name.

Add an additional option to export all subtools, and have zbrush convert the polygroups to wavefront materials, and subtools to wavefront groups, and that would restore complete compatibility back and forth.

Ideally though, zbrush might need a new grouping category to retain 100% compatibility in zbrush:

wavefront materials to polygroups
wavefront groups to object groups (and these would need to be sculpt on together as if they were one subtool.)

I’m pretty sure the old poser import plugin did handle these properly. (I don’t recall loosing grouping or materials when going back and forth.)

I’m surprised this hasn’t been resolved by now, unless theres a solution in zbrush or a add on plugin thats escaping me.

[biggerjohn]

Are you on MAC or PC?

PC. Windows 7 64bit with i7-870 and 8gigs of ram and a Radeon 5700 series.

[Blaine91555]

I’m running into a few issues on importing objects into zb4R3.

First, the objects are being stripped of materials, and everything becomes “default mat”. Is there a way to import and retain material groups? (The surfaces were done in lightwave, and poser pro sees them fine.)

That’s why I’m here looking for an answer. The objects open fine in other software. Must be something unique to ZBrush and very unhelpful.

Anyone from Pixologic read this thread or respond? Why is it that ZBrush has so many issues with .obj’s we don’t see in other software?

[aurick]

I found a workaround for the mesh deformation… zbrush needs to have closed meshes on 3d modelled objects. As long as you don’t subdivide the mesh, it’ll leave em undeformed.

Still no idea how to retain surface groups. There was an old poser import zplugin that I think retained them, but I don’t think it works on the latest version.

I’m surprised that surface groups aren’t just imported and converted to polygroups, or that there is at least an option for this.

The only workaround I can think of is break a mesh apart into seperate surfaced objs, and import each seperately, and assign each its own polygroup, and then merge the result.

For a mesh with a number of material groups though, that’ll be a chore.

You can divide the mesh. There are two options:

1. Turn off Tool > Geometry > Smt. This tells ZBrush not to smooth the surface when you divide it. You can then get more polys without any change in shape.

2. After import, press Tool > Geometry > Crease. This tells ZBrush to put a crease around all edges. The surface as a whole will then smooth when dividing, but the edges will remain as-is.

[Gareee]

Blaine… there was an update to the zbrush poser plugin in jan that resolves some issues, and Marcus mentioned today working on adding another helpful feature to it.

Aurick: The main issue really has more to do zbrush being able to import sculpt/texture and export wavefront objects without mangling or loosing any material groups or poly groups.

Filling the holes manually of the objects was a simple fix, but I’ll try your suggestions to see if thats a viable solution.

I know of no other 3d application that does not preserve the grouping of obj files other than zbrush, but it sounds like Marcus is working one that plugin to hopefully address the issues.

I’m just surprised after all this time that this wasn’t a basic feature addressed long ago.

[Mauricio_Ruiz_Design]

First of all, R3 is awesome, many thanks!

I do have one issue though that I also had in 4R2b that I was hoping would be gone.
I’m experiencing significant lag and jerkiness while sculpting the surface of an object or even just hovering and moving the cursor around when using a wacom tablet. Is anyone else having issues similar to this? If I use the trackpad things are smooth again. If I turn off Performance>Multidraw my brush moves and sculpts very smooth and fluid however rotating the canvas is choppy. Any suggestions on settings adjustments, etc would be greatly appreciated.

I’m running Zbrush on a 2.66Ghz Core2Duo Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM, osx Lion, and a wacom tablet.

screenshot:

Hi Pixo!

Really excited for the new update (4r3)! Thanks!!

I just installed it and it and I seem to be having some issues. I’ve read through every page of this thread and only found this question, but with no reply.

My issues:

1)I am having my cursor lag and move very choppy cross the screen. The same problem persists while sculpting with brushes, and remains with model at lowest subdivision level. I’m on a MacBook Pro.

2. Using the lasso masking tool and the lasso Hide/Show tool does not retain the shape I draw in the document. It seems to act like the slice curve brush and contract and expand.

Again, I did not find these problems in the thread, but if they were addressed, please direct me to the corresponding sources.

Thank you!

Maury

[zber2]

There seems to be a display bug on the canvas when using symmetry with retopology. Previewing the adaptive skin will show only one side. See image. I’m on PC 32 bit.

edit: With more experimenting, I noticed it doesn’t do it all the time. Although it should be obvious in the image, I forgot to mention that this is with an appended zsphere. Also, a skin thickness of 0.05.

edit 2: OK, I have tried to reproduce this several times and it’s not happening now. Restarting ZBrush, restarting my computer, restarting ZBrush. It appears to be OK now. Hopefully just a one time thing. I’m not the only one who has had this as somebody else in the forum has also commented on it here.

Edit 3: It’s back

.

Conclusion: Retopology is still screwed up.

[TroyRichardson]

There seems to be a display bug on the canvas when using symmetry with retopology. Previewing the adaptive skin will show only one side. See image. I’m on PC 32 bit.

edit: With more experimenting, I noticed it doesn’t do it all the time. Although it should be obvious in the image, I forgot to mention that this is with an appended zsphere. Also, a skin thickness of 0.05.

edit 2: OK, I have tried to reproduce this several times and it’s not happening now. Restarting ZBrush, restarting my computer, restarting ZBrush. It appears to be OK now. Hopefully just a one time thing. I’m not the only one who has had this as somebody else in the forum has also commented on it here.

Edit 3: It’s back

.

Conclusion: Retopology is still screwed up.

I think your double sided is turn off, that happen to me all the time since R2. If I’m right and it show up it just mean you have to flip the normals.

[zber2]

Thanks Troy! I’ll keep a lookout for that the next time it happens.

[system]

I just updated and am having issues with my project being transparent and I cannot seem to find any setting to change it. can some show me where to adjust this at?

Thanks
Joe

[MentalFrog]

That doesn’t look like transparency but a normals issue. It looks like your normals somehow got flipped inside out.

Go in the Tool->Display Properties->Flip button. That should flip all your normals back the way they should be.

[system]

is there a way to unflip them? I havent tried any of my other files yet maybe I should do that and see if the others are flipped too. either way is there a way to flip them to normal

thanks

Joe

[dargelos]

I can´t get to use layers to add color and polypaint. this didnt happen in the last release. Sorry if it was an issue covered before.
I also get that problem someone commented before…i keep losing press sensitivity after saving a file… I dont think many guys have this problem but its quite annoying. Its fixed by restoring zbrush windows size. minimizing and maximizing again but i still would like to know why it´s happening

[TroyRichardson]

I can´t get to use layers to add color and polypaint. this didnt happen in the last release. Sorry if it was an issue covered before.
I also get that problem someone commented before…i keep losing press sensitivity after saving a file… I dont think many guys have this problem but its quite annoying. Its fixed by restoring zbrush windows size. minimizing and maximizing again but i still would like to know why it´s happening

just tried it and it works, Im on a mac snow leopard. make sure you don’t have an mask on, that happen to me. or on the right subtool, that also happen to me.
So people make a blank layer 1st, I didn’t but there must be a reason people do that.

[dargelos]

just tried it and it works, Im on a mac snow leopard. make sure you don’t have an mask on, that happen to me. or on the right subtool, that also happen to me.
So people make a blank layer 1st, I didn’t but there must be a reason people do that.

thanks for your help, I used layers all the time with last releases and i never got a problem. I retried with a different brush and it worked! so i came back to the brush i was using and magically works now. well I don´t understand it but as long as it works im happy. never underestimate the power of retrying 1000 times

[maryus]

Hi
I have the old problem with scaling via Goz and 3dsmax,didnt figure it out before and cant do it now.
I have seen this problem before on many forums,but no answer,GOZ from zbrush 4 was supposed to fix this,but doesnt work in my case.
The mesh from Zbrush appears very small in 3dsmax viewport.I would like to find out where I can find those numbers that can be changed,I dont mean raising the scale,which Ive tried and I cant get the maps in max after changing the scale value in zbrush.
Its really really frustrating,Ive tried scaling the object in max,making an new object in max ,an tshirt over the model,and when I got in zbrush,that tshirt was really big…compared to the model…
Long story short…How do I fix the scaling problem with max when Goz doesnt seem to do that.and can I find the real coordinates,measures of the model in zbrush?
Thanks…this is doing my ending ,

[nozzle]

Hello once again…

4R3 is still crashing my mac.
Also I cannot get BPR to render depth cue. I have jiggled the controls endlessly & just can’t get any blur whatsoever.

Any ideas/workarounds would be appreciated

[MealeaYing]

Hello once again***8230;

4R3 is still crashing my mac.
Also I cannot get BPR to render depth cue. I have jiggled the controls endlessly & just can’t get any blur whatsoever.

Any ideas/workarounds would be appreciated

I dont know about the crashing part as I havent got a Mac, but Fog and Depth Cue no longer work in BPR as of 4R2. In 4.0 they still work.
Also fog will work in Best render, but that has other issues.
Its all sort of confusing.

[nozzle]

Ah***8230;
Thank you for letting me know, I can stop wasting time trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong then.

There seems to be some odd flattening too when using perspective and an annoying un-rendered line top & bottom when any part of the model leaves the frame.

Hopefully these things will be fixed.

Fingers crossed