Displacement

# 1 13-09-2003 , 07:18 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: Los Angeles

Posts: 695

I can't figure out how to do displacement in Maya. I've got everything set up with a displacement map attached to the shader in the Displacement Mat. I've tried using Feature Displacement, and I've tried tesselating my object to make lots of polys to displace. Nothing seems to work. Is there a way to set the strength of the displacment like you would set Bump depth for a bump map? All I can find is the Displacement vlaue, but you can't put a number in there as it's driven by the grayscale map.

HELP! What's wrong here?

Quote

# 2 13-09-2003 , 12:17 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2003

Posts: 1,257

f1 quote
The displacement height is the alpha value of the texture map by default. If you turn on Alpha is Luminance for the texture, the displacement height results are based on the intensity of the pixels in the texture map.
endquote...

then you can tweak it with the contrast controls on the texture/file node.

if it doesnt gets the shape of the pic youre using slowly up the samples of the texture (the more samples the more polys)

Quote

# 3 13-09-2003 , 08:14 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: Los Angeles

Posts: 695

Thans for the quote, but I read that that and if you read my post you would know that that wasn't the info I needed.

A displacement map with pure white and pure back will only displace so much, what if I want it to displave more. There must be a value somewhere similar to Bump depth to do this.

Quote

# 4 13-09-2003 , 08:56 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2002

Location: St. louis Mo

Posts: 1,580

dan, '

I have been working with this indepth for the last week or two on my truck... I have to say that what dragonFx has said is indeed the answer to you question... all you have to do is increasse the value past one, lets say, 3-4 you can still increase it above one eventhough 1 is pure white. Know what I mean? Try it out, it worked for me,
Brian

Please check
My (old) website!

Quote

# 5 13-09-2003 , 09:16 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: Los Angeles

Posts: 695

I figured he was talking about the Color Offset and COlor Gain controls. Are you guys referring to the contrast Utility? I've never used it, and the F1 docs may tell you what the values do, but not how to set it up. All it says is

"Map the colors you want to the Contrast utility." which may as well say "Verbally tell the computer to use the Contrast utility" and would be just as good advice.

Sorry, frustrated today. Does anyone know how to set this up?

Quote

# 6 13-09-2003 , 10:18 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: Los Angeles

Posts: 695

This is my file with the object that will not displace. You can see I tried adding the contrast utility, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I'm likely using it wrong.

Thanks,
-dann

Attached Files

disp.zip (60.6 KB, 297 views)

Quote

# 7 14-09-2003 , 12:52 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2003

Posts: 1,257

took the file placed it on a new lambert, saw it was wrong modified samples(you can still higer them more so it will be smoother) and auto resized bounding box just in case... frist response still aplies as part of the "integral displacement control and troubleshoot" user added image

man of little faith... user added image

Attached Files

dann displace modified.zip (85.1 KB, 301 views)

Quote

# 8 14-09-2003 , 01:08 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: Los Angeles

Posts: 695

Hmmm. I cannot open your file. Script Errors. I'm in Maya v4.5, are you in Maya v5? Maybe you can tell me what you did? What did you set the sample rates to. I've truied making them higher, but still no displacement.

"integral displacement control and troubleshoot" - what does this mean?

Thank you for your help. I am very appreciative.

Quote

# 9 14-09-2003 , 01:32 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: Los Angeles

Posts: 695

I got it!

I had to up the Extra Smaple Rate to about 100, and then add a multiply utility to increase the displacement.

Thanks for the help.

Quote

# 10 14-09-2003 , 09:57 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2003

Posts: 1,257

good morning...glad you made it... but 100 is a lil bit higher... doesnt it takes a lot of time?, maybe you should lower the texture threshold and that will allow you to lower the samples making it faster?

"integral displacement control and troubleshoot" its just a fancy term for "the list of thingies to change prameters so the damn displacement works and looks ok" user added image

Quote