I've been able to bake 32bit tangent space vector displacement and bring it into Houdini and render without errors, even when I bend and deform the object. This is really really good!!! However - the problem is that seams are especially bad on vector displacement maps. Im using mantra anyway which has a ptex node built in and its easy to render tangent space displacement files if you build an object to tangent space matrix.
First - about the tangent space UV bake..............
Im confused about the process. I go to texture>>>export>>>vdm>>> select UV set >>>>then chose from object space/tangent space/absolute (I choose tangent space)>>>> choose the map type (zero is black, not normalized), then I was told to choose a place to save the file. After that it generated the map.
1) Why isnt there a dialouge where I can select my "source" high rez object to bake from? For instance in mudbox you choose your HI and your LOW objects.
2) I assume it is taking anything near the cube and getting point positions and doing subtraction? How does it know how far to do this operation if I cant set any bound parameter or define what my HI is?
My main question about ptx vdm baking:
I imported a reference object (cube) into the retopo room and retopo>>>merge with ptex. Then, I go to texture>>>export>>>vectorDispl to ptex. After doing this the only options I get is what the filename is. I dont get to choose what ptex object to bake from, what space for the map or the type.
I look in a ptex viewer I have and obviously nothing has been written and the file size is only ~400kb. Not only can I not choose the LOW object but I cant choose the HI or any options. This is a major issue and is the same with displacementToPtex and vdmToPtex. I tried using the regular dialogue for UV vdm for my Ptex vdm and renaming it but obviously the math is different and this doesnt work.