Realistic brick edges?

[Streetwise]

What is the better way to create more realistic brick edges? As you can see, the left edges are "okay", but the right edges are way to straight and sharp to look realistic. Right now, I'm using a UVW Map in box mode and a bump map. I've tried both a displace map and also a VRayDisplacement Modifier, but it kills my render times and doesn't really do anything. My confidence level at modeling is low, so where do I dig in? Is it more of a geometry issue or more of a materials issue?

Thanks

Dave

[glorybound]

In my experience it is by creating a really good 3d displacement map - Bricks are easy, so just a black and white version of your brick will do.

What is the better way to create more realistic brick edges? As you can see, the left edges are "okay", but the right edges are way to straight and sharp to look realistic. Right now, I'm using a UVW Map in box mode and a bump map. I've tried both a displace map and also a VRayDisplacement Modifier, but it kills my render times and doesn't really do anything. My confidence level at modeling is low, so where do I dig in? Is it more of a geometry issue or more of a materials issue?

Thanks

Dave

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21033[/ATTACH]

[Streetwise]

In my experience it is by creating a really good 3d displacement map - Bricks are easy, so just a black and white version of your brick will do.

Would you use that map in the displacement slot under the bump map, or would you use the VrayDisplacementMod?

Edit: I'm trying VrayDisplacementMod with an amount of .3. The small sample that I did looked awesome and exactly what I was hoping for, BUT, where a 4096x3277 render would take something like 5 or 6 hours, it wants to take 10hrs *just* for building the light cache and prefiltering!? Certainly not doable. This is even after I've turned my DMC subdivs down.

[JezUK]

That's a really interesting question - I'm currently working on a few externals and must admit my externals aren't that great compared to the others I've seen on here.

And bricks are something I'm really trying to nail - in my opinion I don't think they're easy at all - especially avoiding repeated tiling. I'll post up a couple I have been working on very soon (though here is one that's a test render).



In the meantime, in answer to your question, I actually find if the mortar is dark (see attached) then for me, no displacement is good enough

Where the mortar is light, a very low displacement (of orders of magnitude you mention) has worked for me.

[Neilg]

dont use 3d displacement, use 2d instead. 3d gets too slow at high res unless you start subdividing the mesh and using lower disp subdivs.

[Streetwise]

dont use 3d displacement, use 2d instead. 3d gets too slow at high res unless you start subdividing the mesh and using lower disp subdivs.

Very true. I did some searching around and discovered that for print work, 2D mapping is fine. So trying that, the image now pre-samples right away, even with an amount of .4 I hear that 2D is more RAM intensive, but that's not an issue for me.

Thanks.

[Neilg]

You might want to invert the map and set the displacement to use a negative value - 2d breaks the corners apart, so instead of pushing the bricks out you should have it push the mortar in.

[Streetwise]

You might want to invert the map and set the displacement to use a negative value - 2d breaks the corners apart, so instead of pushing the bricks out you should have it push the mortar in.

Ah! Yes, very smart. I'll have to try that! Right now, my mortar does push out. Looks okay, but kind of sloppy. Thanks for the tip.

[piotrus3333]

if 3d vray disp does not work for you there was a trick long time ago to keep continuity on the edges with 2d disp - mesh smooth modifier with zero iterations.
downside is you get smoothed polygons - small chamfer on the corner edges might help.

[Vizioen]

dont use 3d displacement, use 2d instead. 3d gets too slow at high res unless you start subdividing the mesh and using lower disp subdivs.

But 2D displacement doesn't work with procedurals, I use bercontile for my bricks and that doesn't work with 2D.

[Morne]

But 2D displacement doesn't work with procedurals, I use bercontile for my bricks and that doesn't work with 2D.

And if you stick it in a VRayColor2bump?

[Neilg]

But 2D displacement doesn't work with procedurals, I use bercontile for my bricks and that doesn't work with 2D.

You could save selected on the object, merge it into a bland scene you have for rendering maps (white env, no gi, sensible aa) view it from the front so it's flat on, render with a diffuse filter render element, crop & use that. Having a scene like that comes in handy for baking displacement down to normal maps too

[Vizioen]

You could save selected on the object, merge it into a bland scene you have for rendering maps (white env, no gi, sensible aa) view it from the front so it's flat on, render with a diffuse filter render element, crop & use that. Having a scene like that comes in handy for baking displacement down to normal maps too

As I want to start creating 3d scenes in game engine like unreal I will have to start doing that, same with my other procedural textures. Although a lot of testing with such a particular scene will be needed I guess, also won't tiling/seams be an issue? Because that's why I use procedurals, no visible tiling/seams anymore.