“7.0 Sucks really bad compared to 8.0 or 8.5 you will get flustrated very fast with disp testing in 7.0”
Why is that? Are there new improved Mental Ray Displacement Algorithms?
BTW good work on all the tutorials, their funny and educational.
Will you be doing more for DOOM3?
You make displacement maps Mitul Kawa in Zbrush tool/displacement menu.
Mental Ray 3.5 Core is used in maya 8.0 But I also see a little change on the Aprox editor in 8.0 Which is in charge of sub. dividing the mesh based on the whites of the map.
As far as doom3 Its been a little nightmare trying to keep it fully working in maya 8.5. When doing doom3 stuff it really likes maya 5.0. I’m currently also looking for a new game engine that is not as hard to code for students. I have no problems with it but its a huge learning curve for students in the class. I found Unreal engine is working a little better but I cant make monsters as easy as I did in Doom3. So I either get great running maps or Very cool monsters that are hard to code. Hopefully as soon as Unreal 2007 hits the market that will all change;)
If you are looking for more tutorials I found
www.3dbuzz.com has alot of info on doom3 and unreal engine
Sooner or later I have to do a 16 week course on game engines and modding. But I’m stalling a little till unreal 2007 hits the market.
Hi Canned Mushrooms,
I looked at your tuts and have to say I’m impressed with your dedication to educating the masses
I really apperciate all the time people spend on free online tuts as I taught myself 3D and found online resources extremly valuable.
When I got some time I’m going to go through them, can never know too much, plus its good to know different workflows than what you get comfortable with.
Thanks for posting your maya “skull” scene, I couldn’t help myself so I set off a render with your settings and ooouuuch!
It took 25mins and 37sec!
I assume you used “feature displacement” instead of a MR Subdiv Approx node so as to use the RGB disp map (which BTW worked fine) also I thought this because you had “Alpha is luminence” turned off.
I took your skull obj into Z3 to use as a base mesh for my own sculpt, reason being I couldn’t replicate your high rez details from your displacement map, so I made my own with a similar level of detail so I could compare renders in maya.
I do not intend this as a comparison of anatomical correctness, as you can see from my quick sculpt there is alot missing.
I just wanted to compare render times and my skull took 30sec to render with the same MR settings except for of course the disp method.
The first image is the lowpoly
The second is the Z3 high rez sculpt
The third is the maya MR comparison
Note: I didn’t render both at the same time, I rendered seperately and combined them in photoshop.
I work in a medium sized post production studio and I need to keep render times per frame under 10mins which is where I developed my disp method.
However for personal projects that doesn’t matter, if you got the ram to spare. 
P.s I would like to post my maya scene for you to look at but can’t figure out how to do that, the zipped.rar file gets rejected 
Any suggestions?
Cheers
DeusEx:
CC909.
By the way thanks again for all of the information you provided me in the past few day. I have not had the chance to try this method yet. But I am planning on giving it a try over the weekend.
LOL deux ya forgot they moved feature displacement in Maya 8.5 so I glanced over it without a second thought you are right it was left on.
I’ll post a newly updated render here in a min or so.
I Like this thread;) its like the devil went down to georgia displacement map style.
That was a long render, Longer than normal. but wow 25mins? gees. Do you have any satellites set up?
This one should render faster now that feature is not fighting aprox sub D.
For those new to Maya 8.5 heres where they moved feature Displacement.
and yes the normal map is pure Z3 (twoinks fiddle string)
And only because I got tired of seeing the sewing circle threads about " I cant make a decent normal map in Z3" this ones for you baby. Thanks deus your calc works good I tweaked it a little but not much its not a calc I can write down. I just sorta feel it out. Alpha gain=Bloat Alpha offset = Suck
See sorta lame but hey it works;)
Render time 2min :35 sec
So deux is the alpha offset screwy because Z3 has a new Grey or somthing you think? Because ya it defiently falls short when you use the /2 - formula
New scene Here
Cheers cc909!
I will check it out and hopefully be able to post a link to my scene file, also I will re-render that scene minus the featured displacement for ya mushrooms.
won’t be for a few days though.
BTW my calculations were by trial and error, which has been approx 98-99% accurate for my work, when you need hardcore detail, i.e HD geometry or xtreme close ups, upping the MR Subdiv approx beyond what I outlined, sends render times go through the roof so normal maps a go-go :lol:
“So deux is the alpha offset screwy because Z3 has a new Grey or somthing you think? Because ya it defiently falls short when you use the /2 - formula”
Not sure? I have a feeling it might actually be something in maya, which would explain why the Z2 multidisp exporter worked so well at fixing the displacement down.
“I Like this thread;) its like the devil went down to georgia displacement map style.”
I totally agree, just one question, what do you mean? 
Cheers
Oak ridge boys sings this song about a kid that will loss his soul if he doesnt beat the the devil in a fiddle playing match. My nerd humor used rendering displacement maps and ya come to think about it heeh wow I need to get out more;)
Anyway I went the way of playing with SSS in MAYA. Now that Zbrush has so many ways to transfer a image to a 3d model. After watching and reading about 24 tuts of people that all had different opinions and with a little help from my own noggen I came up with these.
The one on the left sucks but its a simple setup
the other two are more complex shaders
hi
i am using max9 and z brush 2.
i am a first time user and its exteremly fine software.
i read ur article n found it to be very very helpful.
i think calculation regarding Alhpa Depth Factor can be made easier.
simply devide it by 15
e.g Alhpa Depth Factor = 4.455
4.455 / 10 = 0.4455
0.4455 / 3 = 0.1485
0.1485 * 2 = 0.297
or 4.455/15 = 0.297
i guess it will be more easier.