I was wondering if anyone had a working method for setting up vector displacement from maps generated in the new version of ZBrush?
I have tried in every way I can think of. I’ve tried the mudbox workflow in case that worked. I can get it to render in mental ray fine by outputting the RGB colour into the vector displacement part of the displacement node and setting the vector encoding to absolute and space to world.
I’m unsure if displacement bounds should be explicit or auto?(it doesnt seem to make a difference) same with keep continuity.
I keep getting results similar to the attached file.
I will continue to look into how it’s done and post if I find out.
Are you able to get the Mudbox vector displacement working in the first place? I have to install Zbrush to see what they have done… are there any tutorials for their vector displacement?
I have not tested the mudbox vector displacement workflow but have read about the workflow(at some point) I don’t know if it’s changed since it was posted. As far as I have seen it works. I have tried it following the guide on spot3d as well as the method involving multiplying ± average and blend color as well as every other way I could think of.
Thanks
My render looks just like yours. Lots of lumpy balls, no sphere.
On a more general note, Vlado it would be great to have some kind of definitive interoperability info for Zbrush > Vray for Maya (like the Mudbox link above). It’s a very widely used pair of programs. Seems like every time I try to bring something back from Zbrush I spend a day hunting the web for info on displacement/filtering/bit depth/etc issues.
Yes, I will make a page, as soon as I figure it out myself. I wish those guys would settle on a standard way of doing this stuff, beats me why everything has to be slightly different.
Great news Vlado, looking forward to it. I don’t envy you trying to interface with the moving feast that is Zbrush, but (a) the visual rewards for getting it right are high and (b) it’s become almost as ubiquitous as Photoshop in 3d pipelines these days.
Superb wording :). On that note, while getting a displacement map workflow stable is ideal, I also have a dream of being able to use vrMesh files straight out of ZBrush during prototype stages (often even for final render if not animated). I usually convert using PLY to .vrmesh, but it’d be lovely to have a ZBrush plugin to export vrmesh files direct.
curious as to whether there has been any progress on this front. Is there going to have to be a specific vray plugin to deal with the way zbrush generates vector displacement?
Well as it turned out the trial of ZBrush doesn’t support vector displacement, so I didn’t have any way to check this out. We are talking to some guys at Pixologic to get a version for testing.
We had a more indepth look; ZBrush appears to be using a different UVW space that what V-Ray expects. At this point I’m not sure what would be easier, to fix ZBrush or V-Ray… we’ll see.
Zbrush flips on Y I believe. Apparently pixologic said a few years back that they are operating in true 3d space, and Photoshop and all the others are upside down. Interesting eh?
But I second the vector displacement,. I’m done with my whole character now at work except for adding vector or any displacement from Zbrush to Maya/Vray.
You can always extract the vdm map from mudbox with your zbrush model. Just import the highest level into mudbox and use reconstruct subdivision levels. And then extract a vdm map.
Just checking in on progress after another couple of months. I’m not the only person in this office who’s hanging out for a solution. We are loving Zbrush 4r3 and loving Vray, and yet…argghh.
BTW I heard the lizard character in the latest Spiderman flick was rendered using vector displacements.
Nope, still won’t work. The UVW tangent space used by ZBrush is completely different from the one expected by V-Ray. We are still waiting for a piece of information from Pixologic in order to implement support for the same tangent space. For the moment, as Johan suggested, going through Mudbox will work better.
Hi Vlado, is there any word on this? a new version of zbrush has been released today but it looks like the VD issue still persists… There are a few more options in generating the VD map, but trying it with the Diagnostic scene generated from zbrush still gives broken results.
It would be great if both companies could work together for a solution to help the users, I know a lot of people like using zbrush over mudbox.
I’m also very curious to see where this goes. Any idea if it’s VRay or ZBrush which will implement some sort of translation for this UVW tangent space issue?
