displacement distance indicator

[Morbid Angel]

Had this idea, where no one really knows how far the displacement is going to push until the test render it and etc. But is it possible to have an option which would show on the surface how far the displacement is actually pushing? i imagine this could be cage copy of the mesh but moved in direction of displacement (surface normals) and then transparent like any cage.
Or, it could be something like show normals command but everynormal will have a different length based on the distance on which displacement is pushing.
I think this can be helpfull when doing character setup and in any other case.

[CCS]

Do you mean vray displacement? It seems to work fine for me. Pure white (255) is displaced the distance specified in the spinner. Grey scales less obviously.

So, if displacement is set to 4", and a given pixel in the displacement map has a value of 193, displacement will be (193/255)*4=3.03"

Or that is how I understand it at least.

[Morbid Angel]

math.....haha
well i just thought visual (instant click) button will be better.

[CCS]

gotcha.

I do mostly architectural, so it's never been an issue. Grass, stone, etc. - just set displ to the max value I want, and adjust levels of the map so that the lightest color is 100%. The rest is all variation.

Would be handy though to see where lap siding would displace to so I can place trim properly.

[Morbid Angel]

yeah, or if you are doing morph targets for character or any type of deformation like folding and etc where surfaces come close to each other.

[CCS]

Gotcha. You'd probably want something similar for fur then, eh?

[Morbid Angel]

totally...if there would be representation of fur it would be cool. I think it can be done with simple splines.

[CCS]

Maybe a similar LOD to what you get with a vrmesh...