Create Displacement Maps using Max, Mental ray and Mudbox
5.
I use the settings that you see in the following picture. Make sure you have smooth cords ON so you don't have problems with faceted displacement results. Also make sure that the low mesh resolution target is at LEVEL 0, but you can also try other levels, in this case I'll use LEVEL 0. Set your high res mesh target at the latest’s subdivision you have, in this case is at LEVEL 6.
Click at Create Displacement map Icon and put a name to your displacement map file. Make sure that in the Search Distance is a number calculated by mudbox itself we are going to use this number later, so remember this number, also mudbox make a cache of the baked texture so you can go back and see the number again.
Put the resolutions at 2048 x 2048 and displacement map at 16 bit, and then START OPERATION. Wait a few moments. . .
6. Back into the max. . . I start to set Mental Ray's displacement features. Remember that we unwrap this so there's no need to export back the low res at level 0 from mudbox into max, or if you don't feel total confidence export a new OBJ from mudbox into max. Assign mental ray as the current renderer in the render settings.
7. In this step, after set Mental Ray in rendering, go to Material Editor and assign a standard material to the mesh. Scroll down and in the Mental Ray Connection rollout activate the Lock so it can unblock the feature, select 3D DISPLACEMENT MAX and enter in the Extended shaders.
8. Here you'll take your displacement map file and load it into the EXTRUSION MAP. Then in the EXTRUSION STRENGTH put the number that appear in Mudbox, in my case that was 37.64 that I told back in step 5, but I prefer to use round number and enter 40.0. After this setting, exit this panel.
9. Then go into Render setting and in Mental Ray go to the RENDERER tab and search for Shadows & Displacement rollout. Follow the settings:
a. In Edge Length: put it at 1.0 in max I think that this feature is at 2. . .
b. In Max Displace: put the same number that appear in mudbox's Search Distance and in Extrusion Strength back in step 5 and 8 of this short tutorial. I put 40.0 so you can vary in this numbers.
c. Max. Levels: I put the numbers of my highest subdivision level so I put 6
10. Add some bump maps and generate a render and this is the result.
I hope you like this tutorial, if you have any comments, suggestions then please email me.
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