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Rendering ZBrush Displacement-Maps In External Renderers (May 9th: 2nd file added)

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#162

So Smoooooooooooth to the infinite :slight_smile:
Pilou

#163

bloontz- yeah, converting to a hdr works much smoother than an 8bit map, cheers :+1:

I hope Newtek will fix the weird UV seam artifacts for the next point release
 high bump map settings can hide them a bit in areas of detail, but that’s no good for smooth areas. Low sub patch divisions reduce them also, but then you loose the displacement details. At the moment you have to pick the best trade-off.

#164

Rendered with Maya 5+Mayaman+Prman 11.5

Texture was flipped, then converted to renderman’s texture file .tx I used normalmap_displace.sl shader inside Mayaman.

Scene has one spotlight + Ambient occlusion.

Rendertime was one minute using P4C 3Ghz.

#165

Here’s a test that I did in Blender 2.33 with the GUV-mapped sword.

Here are the steps that I took:

Step 1: Import ZSword_SDiv2_GUV into the ZBrush 2.0 alpha pallette.

Step 2: Press the FlipV button in the Alpha pallette.

Step 3: Export the tif alpha image as a *.bmp image.

Step 4: Download the *.obj importer plug-in for Blender at http://jmsoler.free.fr/util/blenderfile/py/obj_io_modif232b.py

Step 5: Open Blender 2.33

Step 6: Select the Text Editor view

Step 7: Load the obj_io_modif232b.py script

Step 8: Select “File → Run Python Script”

Step 9: Press the “Select Import” button and browse to where you stored the ZSword_SDiv2_GUV.obj file

Step 10: Go back to one of the 3D view windows and set-up the sword, lights and camera how you like it.

Step 11: Click on the “Shading” button (the one with the little gray ball).

Step 12: Click on the “Add New” button in the material panel.

Step 13: Click on the “Texture Buttons” button (the one that looks like a leopard skin square).

Step 14: Click on the “Add New” button in the texture panel.

Step 15: Under the “Texture Type” bar select “image”.

Step 16: Click the “Load image” button in the image panel.

Step 17: Select the *.bmp image that you exported from ZBrush

Step 18: Click on the “Material buttons” button (the one that looks like a little red sphere).

Step 19: Click on the “Map Input” tab and click on the “UV” button

Step 20: Click on the “Map To” tab and turn off the “Col” button and turn on the “Disp” button.

Step 21: Set the Disp value to 1.0

Step 22: Go back to the “texture buttons” button (the one that looks like a leopard skin square) and click on the “Colors” tab.

Step 23: Move the “Constr” slider under the “Colors” tab to 5.0

Step 24: Click on the “Editing” button and make sure the Sword model is selected (the wireframe should be pink).

Step 25: Click the “Assign” button in the “Link and Materials” panel, so the texture is assigned to the sword.

Step 26: Click on the “SubSurf” button in the “Mesh” panel.

Step 27: Set real-time sub-division to 1

Step 28: Set rendering sub-division to 5

Step 29: Render away!

#166

Regarding the sword and Vray displacement, Vlado had this to say:

“That particular scene (the sword) is going to have problems because of the sharp edges. At this point VRay does not support render time subdivision displacement (both smoothing and displacing a surface) which is needed to accurately repeat what zbrush does; usually this is not much of a problem if you subdivide the mesh once or twice, because the ordinary smooth normals will end up quite close to the normals of the limit subdivision surface. In the sword scene however, this approximation is not sufficient around the edges.”

#167

To add another dimension, I rendered an animated version of the displacement. Done with Realsoft 3D (just press record, change the time point and bump height, and render).

DivX http://staff.csc.fi/jyrki.hokkanen/head.avi
Mpeg1 http://staff.csc.fi/jyrki.hokkanen/head.mpg

Cheers
Jyrki

#168

I can’t seem to download the Sword zip files–it goes slow and then gives up. Is there a mirror?

#169

Looks like Lynx 3D has come up with the goods for us Lightwavers, take a look


Lynx3D’s Normal Displacement plugin

#170

Just to test Lightwave settings. No need to have a plugin to perform Displacement maps. It works fine with the displacement tools integrated into LW 7.5 . The only thing, is to find the good setting, for each mesh.

#171

I tested with xsi4 and mr3.3 and it behaved very nicely for me.
I had problems in the under lip but it seems to be a problem with the map , I have to check out.

settings :
subdivision level 2
using fine displacement , view dependant subdiv min0 max7 with 100% sharpness

render time :
length = 1 pixel , 2.2 millions triangles : 4min12
length = .25 pixel , 18 millions triangles : 8 min
(560/700pixels simple lambert shader, one spot light w/ray traced shadows AMD 2.6Ghz 2Gig ram)

I noticed some artifacts in some passes and I’m suspecting problems with the normals of the object.
would it be possible to have a normal map of this guy to be sure.?
I would be also interested to know from what subdivision level the displacement map was originally generated


#172

amigo SUBUTEX
excelente render
si pudieras compartir la escena 
en un zip :+1: 
gracias

#173

Lulu you perfectly understand the exercice, processor, time rendering, setup all is noticed,
some here should read again the instructions


#174

Does anybody know if any of this is possible with Carrara 3? Thanks for any advice.

#175

subutex, what? you used no plugins- not even the original normal displacement plugin
 :smiley: Can you tell us more about your settings? :slight_smile:

#176

hello,
nothing more than a simply test, done with lightwave 7.5.

  • uv map flipped (v)
  • a little bit of photoshop manipulation (rgb conversion, curves and sharpness)
  • ‘pure’ geometry (no bump maps, no tricks)
  • 500k poly count
  • a three shadow-mapped lights
  • medium AA
  • render time: about 40 sec. (p4 2.7g)
    
and, clearly, big thanks goes to mathias wein, for his plug-in - normal displacement.
    normal displacement plug-in
    cheers
    p.
#177

@ pixelp_pl , subutex

did you guys put the subdivision order on " first " or after "displacement " or something else ?

@ subutex
could you make yor setting availlable ?

how did you get ride of the uv seam displacement ?

thx for reply

christophe

#178

hello xtrm3d ,
the subdivision order was set on “first”
cheers
p.

#179

Gave this a quick run; here are the settings on Maya 5.0.1 and MR:

Map flipped vertically in PS.Saved as RGB Tif.
Displacement Settings: Presets: Fine View High Quality. Approx Method: Spatial. Approx Style: Grid. Min Subdivisions:1. Max Subdivisions:7. Length:0.250. View Dependant:Yes.
Subdivision Settings:
Approx Method:Spatial. Min Subdivisions:5. Max Subdivisions:9 Length:0.100. View Dependant:Yes
Feature Displacement:Off
Displacement File:
Quadratic. Alpha Gain:14.00. Alpha Offset:-7.00. Filter:0.000 Filter Offset:0.001
Three spotlights, main light with shadow mapped shadows.
‘Production Quality’ - ‘Front Faces’
BSP settings: standard
Min sample rate: 0
Max sample rate: 3
Dual 3.06 Xeon 3GB RAM - 48 seconds - 960 x 720
Atwooki :slight_smile:

#180

Hey pooverfish, wondering if you have put together a zscript/maxscript together. I find i’m always playing with the vray disp. modifier and it pains me to tweak as often as i do. thnx.

#181

@subutex

your render says 5k polys
is this the base mesh or are you setting your render subdivision higher. If you are setting the render level higher then display level, this is not really the number of polys - be honest! All LW users know, if LW has to subdivide on render to a higher level, then it reqiures to make a highrez version of it in memory (a.k.a. “updading geometry”) which eats up memory fast.

Not like prman, it cost nothing - speed or memory.

What does the hair look like?

js