Sorry to post this, but I have been searching and trying to learn the best xsi settings for displacement maps. I am not clear on the best process if someone could point me to a thread it would be greatly appreciated.
I am having the most difficulty sorting out the most recent best practice. I have looked at all the old ones, and it is not clear what is necessary with the new object importers since xsi 5.
Thanks,
John
Here I copy the PM I sent you, hopefully it helps others as well
Actually the workflow that worked for me is to use the lowest level of the geometry as cage, make the displacement map in ZB with the quickcode of DE-LCEK-EAEAEA-R32. This setting ensures that the exported map will be 32 bit map (no banding!) and it will automatically set the value range. In XSI you connect this map to a change range node, set the New Start and New End Values to -2 and 2 respectively, and connect it to the Displacement port of your material. On the object’s geometry approximation PPG find Displacement, set the mode to Fine, set the maximum displacement to 2 (the same as the New End value of your change range node), and set the Length to .5 and View Dependent ON. That means your object will be displaced in raster space, and your displacement will depend on the screen space it occupies and not the geometry space.
It must be noted that the values are depending on model scale as well. So if you’re using 10cm=1unit setup, it works fine.
Why it is 2? I have no clue…
It’s because the 32 is a floating point representation…I do not know…Maybe some techie guy can enlight us
Hi therasoft, iv been messing around with displacement rendering in xsi for awhile, here are a couple of threads i found use full on the subject:
http://homepage.mac.com/daishixsi/page12/page15/page15.html
http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=31997
Hope they help, cheers
Thanks Jester, thanks Hayden B. I was struggling to sort out the guide for 3.1.
It doesnt’ look like we get the GoZ action yet–so it might be valuable to consolidate it since the pipeline z 2.0 document. I will try that maybe this evening if I can and let you know if I have any problems. I really do appreciate it as that would take me a milenium to figure out as I don’t have a technical grounding in xsi.
I will keep you posted. Jester I didn’t need to keep it private. I found a really old post by you and I and didn’t yet figure out how to search to see if you were active recently. Sorry for making you post in both. But thanks for going to the effort.
Many bows over here to my helpful softies.
Thanks,
John
Open zbrush
Load ztool at subdivision level 1 ( cage displacement will apply to)
Go to menu item zplugin>multidisplacement 3
It drops down showing the options
Leave all options as they are (do I need to mess with any of these?)
Click on >EXPORT OPTIONS
GOING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Change default D32 to R32 this will gray oout all the regions in the status because it is set to off.
Now turn the “status”> ON
This reveals all the options for exporting.
On my system I had to hand type the code DE-LCEK-EAEAEA-R32 by clicking in the box.
Made sure verticle flip>on
Smooth >ON
Chanel 1, 2,3 >ON
CLOSE THE WINDOW.
Go back to zplugin menu item and go to>CREATE ALL
Export to desired location.
GIVES ME INFO CREATING TILE>>>>
And it makes several displacement maps for me. (WHAT DO ALL THE ORANGE NUMBER MEAN–ARE THOSE PREVIOUS DISPLACMENT MAP TRIALS??
IN XSI:
New scene
Fille>import>nagivate to your .obj file AND LOAD
DISPLACEMENT TAB ( when loading object file look at top): Find displacement map you exported ( file should end in R32)
>SET SUBDIVISION TO–2
LEAVING ALPHA DEPTH FACTOR AT—0.5
VIEW DEPENDENT REFINEMENT—CHECKED
(ALREADY FLIPPED VERTICALLY IN DISPLACEMENT EXPORTER SO LEAVE OFF)
Finish.
Now hit " number button 7" to bring up Render tree
View nodes which should include ( fdisplacementmap, txt2dimage explicit,color to scalar,sib interp linear all plugged into material " displacement" (green) input.
Now you are going to edit the SIB_INTERP_LINER ( which is a change range node). DOUBLE CLICK on the node, it will bring up a property page, type in under NEW RANGE START–2, AND NEW RANGE END -2; CLOSE THE WINDOW
NOW SELECT YOUR OBJECT
GO TO: selection explorer>geometry approximation>“GEOMETRY TAB”
Set mode to—fine
Set max Displacment—2 ( IF IT ISN’T TWO THEN YOU DIDN’T CHANGE THE VALUES IN THE CHANGE RANGE NODE).
View dependent—ON ( should be checked from the import portion above)
CLOSE THE WINDOWS AND CROSS YOUR FINGERS.
Now if you need to modify… who the hell knows…that part to come.
See the attached image.
I am thinking that it might be an issue with bad poly layout in the mouth region. But before I go down that path, you guys have any suggestions from your experience. ( you can see the method I used above)
Also, things that should be pushed into the mesh are pulled out. Could there be some way that I inverted it or something?
I have seen in previous posts that XSI cannot handle 32 bit displacement unless it is a RGB image. Is this true still?
Thanks for anyone willing to answer.
Here is the high subdversion version.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=71758
See below for the displacement render in XSI using above posted process consolidating both suggestions from haydenB and Jester.
I also got an error that displacement was outside of the 2.0 range and it was clipped. I am sure it likely has something to do with this, but I don’t know for sure so help is appreicated.
[ATT=144724]zbrushrenderclose_dispacementsinverted.jpg[/ATT] I would really appreciate it if someone could take the time to take a look at my last comments regarding displacement maps in XSI. I would sincerely appreciate the help. It is driving me crazy and I am on a deadline. Any help is greatly appreciated. I hope I didn’t offend any of those who offered me the initial help.
Thanks again for taking the time to help. I posted the process I used given the input I got. I am trying to help others with posting the process as I understand it.
You will see on the posts my node setup and the rendered models. Notice that the displacement is pushing it outward. I had to adjust it to be outside of the -2, 2 format to get it to work at 32 bit displacement with the specified export from multidisplacement 3.
Thanks again for any help. 
