Error while extracting vector displace map

#1

I get an error while extracting vector displace map. It sais that mesh doesn’t have the same base-level topology. What is that mean? What is the procedure?

#2

your level0 of the high and the low mesh have to be the same mesh (same vertex count)…
cause VDM maps are not baked with raycasting its using the pointorder…

if you like to bake a vectordispmap for rendering in mr or renderman you have to bake the map between level0 and the highest… or use a mesh with the same pointorder in level0…

if you like to create a VDM stamp or stencil download my VDM plane…
http://area.autodesk.com/mudlife/basem/plane_for_vdm_sculpting

  1. import VDM plane
  2. sculpt plane, but dont move the four vertices on the corners…!!
  3. import the unsculpted VDM plane again…
  4. bake between those two planes your VDM…
#3

Thank you very much for the answering,

I made a texture from level 1 to 5 and i got more like bump map effect. The texture is pretty dark in photoshop. Why is that?

One more question again… What is meaning the same point order? Do i must make a retopology for level 0 extraction?

I saw the tutorial for making the brush from plane. Pretty cool. Thank you.

#4

I get the same error, but Im absolutely certain my base mesh is identical to the highest subdiv level.

Mudbox cannot extract a Vector Displacement Map from these meshes, because they do not have the same base-level topology.

I opened an OBJ from Max, subdivided it, slapped on a layer or two, sculpted, collapsed layers and now it cant bake vector displace. It works with other meshes though so there must be something odd about this one, but I cant figure out what it is. Is vector displace extra sensitive when it comes to UVs, smoothing groups and normals?

edit: apparently vector displace is extremely sensitive to triangles and ngons in the mesh. If your mesh in not 100% quads, it will give that error message. I had a couple of triangles in a non-visible area of my mesh and that was enough to break it.

#5

VDMs are so dark cause they are 32bit maps… so there is more color than your monitor could display… a normal monitor is working with only 8 or 10bit… go to the mudbox image browser and hit 20 times the + key… to brighten up your image temporary…

no same point order means that the mesh have to be the same (vertex count wise)…
you could move some vertices but its not allowed to cut in some new edges or dele a vertex…

@krotma
thanks for info…

#6

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