Vector displacement in SP3

[gagui]

What is the reason the new vector displacement is not compatible with normal maps and vector displacement maps of modo.

After some test i think the system of rgb level of 0 = 0 displacement in all channels is best.

[gagui]

A good explanation of how Vector displ. works would be very useful.
And the vray vector displ. bake material, please.

[Da_elf]

ok im probably wrong on what color does what. but it seems vector displacement looks at an RGB image and uses like green to tell if its positive or negative in Z. red for positive or negative in X and blue for positive or negative in Y. with all 3 in the center being mid grey as neither of any direction

[gagui]

In my tests it seems like channel red is for X, green is for Y and blue for Z. And i think X and Y takes mid gray as zero value and Z takes black as zero. Is it right?

[vlado]

In my tests it seems like channel red is for X, green is for Y and blue for Z. And i think X and Y takes mid gray as zero value and Z takes black as zero. Is it right?

Red is for U direction, green is for V direction, blue is for the normal direction. The neutral value for red and green is 0.5, for blue - 0.0f (you can adjust this with the shift though).

Best regards,
Vlado

[vlado]

After some test i think the system of rgb level of 0 = 0 displacement in all channels is best.

You need negative values. Many image file formats do not work with these.

Best regards,
Vlado

[pg1]

for those who might have missed it this link was posted in another thread
http://www.etereaestudios.com/traini...ief_maps_2.htm
and gives a pretty good explanation of vector displacement
its in spanish

first time I opened this page it was translated to english, not sure how.....
think google did it

anyway has lots of pics

[MasterBercon]

Well the bottom vector displacement images do show what you can do with it but that page also contains some incorrect information.

First, you don't use Ambient Occlusion to render out Bumpmap, you use Z Depth and the results are pretty much identical to using Normal map.

Second, normal maps DO NOT contain Z information, they contain only "XY", the direction of normal. If you add Z in it then its for Parallax/Offset mapping, kinda like fake displacement mapping.

Third, it should be made clear that Normal maps have NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING to do with Vector Displacement, they are totally useless with it. Both use colorful pictures but thats it.