ZBrushCentral

'Render Penalty' Question

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi.

Which mesh has the greater render penalty?

  • An 800 poly mesh with only a Displacement Map

  • A 1600 poly mesh with only a Normal Map

Thanks!

~S.~

#2

Hi.

I’m curious about this because I have friends in the game industry who say they never use displacement. They tell me that a LowPoly mesh for a typical bipedal humanoid (without costume or armor) is between 3-4 thousand polys. And that a lot can be done simply with Normal Maps. I thought the reason might be that Displacement Maps required the calculation of new geometry at the time of render and Normal (or Bump) Maps don’t require this. Am I right?

Also, if I’m not rendering for games but for production render animation, am I better off with a LowPoly mesh with Displacement or am I better off with a higher resolution ‘LowPoly’ that only requires a Normal and/or Bump Map?

Thanks!

~S.~

#3

hey snark,

i’ve got a friend in the industry who knows his stuff pretty well. he models and textures for one of the big advertising houses in london and he just started his own company (wish he’d give me a job!!)

he’s always maintained that displacement maps are not used in-game, simply because there’s no need. a normal map combined with good spec and model siluette can cover most needs, plus the obvious fact that displacement is more memory intensive.

BUT, he’s also often very proud of telling me that he rarely touches displacement for high quality work if he can help it. he says that unless you use powerful render technology (like renderman, i guess), you’re just gonna get loads of hastle with glitches of one kind or another.

for stills work, if practical, bump up the mesh as high as you can cope with and use normal maps. alternatively, a medium res displacement map combined with highest possible mesh level and high frequency normal maps is also a good way to go.

this was last year. things change so quickely. maybe i’m wrong. but it kinda makes sense, right? then again, if this is the case…how come scott spencer’s zbrush to maya displacement tutorial is so popular?

i wish a book would fall out of the sky with all the right answers!

this is cheeky, but if you’re curious, could you take a look at my post yesterday. maybe you can help me. i’m a new member, ya see. (though i’ve been following this stuff for a while now - just never had a need to post before) and i’m not getting much response from anyone - it’s a normal map into maya shader question…

TPMD - what’s the BEST method of using normal maps in maya

hope i helped :slight_smile:

jase

#4

Thanks, TPMD!

That does help. It seems I can have a lowpoly mesh for a bipedal humanoid of a few thousand polys and only use Normal Maps. If that turned out to not be enough, I could always create a Displacement Map later.

~S.~