Any V-Ray Displacement advice

[Yon]

I am trying some tests and looking for advice on smoothing out the V-Ray Displacement. The 'smooth' would be in the transition between the gradient shade values.  Below the walls is a flat plane with a 'pillow' displacement map on it (looks like ham?!). The close up is Frame Buffer normal and diffuse channels.  The diffuse channel looks like I would expect, smooth like the pillow texture.

Separately but related,

1. is there a way to export the V-Ray displaced model, as it seems to build a new mesh to render internally?
2. can any procedurals be used with displacement (like water)?
3. is there a better way to get a smooth mesh from an image in formZ?

Thanks, Yon

[Justin Montoya]

Hey Yon!

I've used V-Ray displacement for getting depth on difficult to quickly model things like moss, grass, and some cushions like you have there.  It's only for rendering output though.

However, I think you are looking for the Displace tool in formZ, not V-Ray, if you want to generate a 3D mesh from the image:

 

http://www.formz.com/manuals/formz10/formZ_Pro/responsive_html/index.htm#t=10845_Displacement.html&rhsearch=displace&ux=search

 

If you are able to use this tool to generate your mesh, would you mind sharing so we can all see what you did?

 

Cheers.

[Yon]

Justin!  Just spit-balling.  I was trying to get the attached idea to work.  But I couldn't get the water to do what I wanted. The reflections pixelate in the displacement, and that issue of the liquid of the material turning black when you edit it.  That issue seems to live in refraction fog bias, and ray tracing refraction.

I'm re-testing displacement in formZ.  That operation never seemed to like me.  But I have time, and will post if the idea moves forward.

Thanks, Yon

[Justin Montoya]

Yon,

I believe the reflections clarity in the displacement has to do with the smoothness of the gradients in the displacement map.  What image are you using for the displacement map?

[Yon]

I thought that was the issue too.  There are only so many shades of gray.  Still, a 4000dpi 16 bit photoshop gradient showed similar bumps.  They seem to show up in the normals thing.  I'm having success using your method, same map. Displacement loves to crash.  But the reflections look good on the other end of the process. and I get to try layering a V-Ray Displacement for ripples on the waves next. 

For posterity, "center" in displacement is really the bottom left corner of where ever you line up your texture map in Texture Edit.  I don't know why, ask your mom. If you have to undo after you build the mesh, I suggest saving, quitting and starting over.  And either mesh the surface as tight as you need in advance, or the adaptive mesh is pretty big by 8.  Start small.

The advantage of formZ displacement is that it is stable once produced, and you can align your objects on it... because it it there.  The disadvantage is, it is permanent, so to try a different map, or strength, you have to rebuild it from scratch.

[Yon]

The ripple idea suffers from not being able to apply decals or single instances.  The texture repeats, so you get ghost ripples   I guess you could make one 'object' size map. 

Another bummer, you don't seem to be able to un-apply a displacement map.  So once applied, you have to set displacement to 0.  Unless someone knows the way?