Displacement mud - maya, not working - very weak

#1

Hi, im having a problem with displacement map extraction in mud. I know there are lots of posts about similar issues on forums, but none of them solve my issue, so someone can help.
Im new to mud so i dont know if its something im doing wrong, but when i extract displacement maps for use in maya etc, they are not in the correct scale.
workflow:

  1. create polyPlane in maya 512x512, 8 subdivs.
  2. send to mudbox feature (also tried using obj export and importing that to mud) - plane1
  3. subdivide, sculpt.
  4. send original plane from maya (or import original obj) into mud. - plane2
  5. new displacement map operation, plane2 into target, plane1 into source. tried both raycasting and subdivision methods. samples: furhest outside. Normalize to search distance checked, preivew as bump checked.
  6. export 16bit tiff.

All seems fine, viewing image as thumbnail in browser, or in photoshop seems to look fine, but opening with fcheck everything is dark grey.
Map image as displacement map in maya, however when browsing for image, preivew is again very dark grey, i dont know if this is why im having an issue, but it dosnt look the same as it does in ps or browser.
Using the original plane with displacement aprox set to fine view high quality.
Displacement is there but very weak, full depth and height isnt there. cant change alpha gain etc, as im using this for a mud-vue workflow and vue dosnt have those features, needs to be exact displacement. The displacement is also very dark and very weak in vue.

When using the same image as a displacement map in mudbox, displacement functions normally and matches original sculpt exactly.

Any ideas? Not sure if its something im missing, if its mayas or muds fault.
Thanks

#2

Ok ive had small development, i found when exporting a 16 bit tiff as and integer, the displacement map reads in better in Maya, without being darkend. However i thought to get the most detail out of maps it was best to export as floating point? is this true?
Im not sure why floating point dosnt work and integer does, or if it degrades quality, could someone clear this up? Also when importing displacement maps from vue, the scale is way off, which can be fixed by muds multiplier, but the values have to be guessed rather than the displacement being completley accurate, any thoughts?
Im also having an issue with scale of the displacement map in Maya and Vue, but i think this be more of a specific program issue than a displacement map issue.

#3

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.