ZBrush Vector Displacement to Maya Vray

[mayanic]

Hello everyone,
there is not a lot of information about ZBrush's vector displacement (4R6 feature) ...

I tried to set it up yesterday but failed ^^

PLZ HELP - Any instructions?!

br mayanic

[vlado]

It won't work. The most reliable way to get vector displacement in V-Ray for the moment is to use object-space PTex textures, which are currently not supported by ZBrush (though Mudbox will work fine).

We'll get back to trying to get ZBrush vector displacement working (I've spent a few weeks trying to figure it out and failed), but I don't know when that will be.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jasonhuang1115]

Hi Vlado,

any new progress in this regard? I have tried for the past couple days but still won't work (Zbrush 4R6 with Maya 2015 Vray 3.0 nightily build 24636).
I end up following zbrush's doc to generate the diagnostic obj and vector displacement to test render. Here below are what I got.
displacement settings (allow negative values enabled for the file node)

render result 01

render result 02 (displacement type: absolute)

render result 03 (displacement type: object)


If compared to what's shown on zbrush's doc, non of the zbrush export setting is working correctly?

Is this a zbrush-related or vray-related issue?

Or maybe it's already working and I'm simply missing something.

[vlado]

any new progress in this regard?

Nope, still won't work.

Best regards,
Vlado

[vlado]

Is this a zbrush-related or vray-related issue?

The Z-Brush guys would say that it's V-Ray. They may be right, but I have no idea how to make it render. Mudbox vector displacement works fine...

Best regards,
Vlado

[jasonhuang1115]

Thank you for the update. I will count on displacement and maybe normal maps for the time being then.

The Z-Brush guys would say that it's V-Ray. They may be right, but I have no idea how to make it render. Mudbox vector displacement works fine...

Best regards,
Vlado

[Reaversword]

The Z-Brush guys would say that it's V-Ray. They may be right, but I have no idea how to make it render.

Did you take a look at the -alleged- bug I found a time ago?

(Here: http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthr...546#post571546)

[vlado]

Did you take a look at the -alleged- bug I found a time ago? (Here: http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthr...546#post571546)

Hmm, no I missed that one. It might explain the issues with the UV seams... I have to check.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Reaversword]

So, at least, in Maya, "Vector Displacement" option (neither absolute nor object ones), makes any kind of sense?, Which software creates maps that works with this options?

Cause, even making the simplest case I can imagine, just take a plane of four vertices (in the plane XZ, in Maya), and "displace" it one unit above (to get the same plane, but a little bit up, in Y axis), and this mode still moves the plane in XZ plane, in place of just gain heigh in Y. (Well, I'm talking in Maya/XSI reference system).

[vlado]

So, at least, in Maya, "Vector Displacement" option (neither absolute nor object ones), makes any kind of sense?, Which software creates maps that works with this options?

I don't think anyone actually uses this mode except the water texture and the Phoenix FD ocean.

Cause, even making the simplest case I can imagine, just take a plane of four vertices (in the plane XZ, in Maya), and "displace" it one unit above (to get the same plane, but a little bit up, in Y axis), and this mode still moves the plane in XZ plane, in place of just gain heigh in Y. (Well, I'm talking in Maya/XSI reference system).

The textures for this mode are 0.5-based, in UV space with the blue value being the displacement along the surface normal. So if you just want to move along the surface normal (regardless of the particular world up axis), you need to have the color as 0.5, 0.5, 1.0 as floating-point RGB (or 128, 128, 255 as 8-bit).

Best regards,
Vlado

[Reaversword]

I see. Thank you for satisfy my curiosity.

Mmmm, I need to check some things with Zbrush.