Member TorQueMoD Posted January 4, 2014 Member Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 Hey all, So I'm working on a new method for creating heightmaps using a combination of Mudbox, World Machine and 3D Coat. Inside mudbox, you can sculpt the basic shape for your terrain and then simply export a heightmap through the Extract Texture Maps option. I was wondering if there's a way to do this inside 3D coat when using Voxels? Basically I want to sculpt in voxel mode and then do a projection of the voxel model onto a simple plane and save out a heightmap from that. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Aleksey Posted January 4, 2014 Advanced Member Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 i think you should be able to do that. once you model your terrain. got to the retopo room. using the quad tool draw a polygon ( put points at each corner of the terrain). then merge to paint roof for per pixel painting. i think that will do it. haven't tried though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TorQueMoD Posted January 4, 2014 Author Member Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 Ok Cool. That sounds right to me. I just wanted to get some feedback from someone else before I start because I've got limited experience with 3D Coat. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Aleksey Posted January 4, 2014 Advanced Member Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 ok i tried it, my advice doesnt really work ill play with this later when i get back home. good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Aleksey Posted January 4, 2014 Advanced Member Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 actually ok i got it. just when you merge to paint room pick the option that says displacement not NM. will do a quick vid for you if you dont get it by the time i get back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contributor Solution ajz3d Posted January 4, 2014 Contributor Solution Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) This post was recognized by Carlosan! ajz3d was awarded the badge 'Helpful' and 1 points. Hey all, So I'm working on a new method for creating heightmaps using a combination of Mudbox, World Machine and 3D Coat. Inside mudbox, you can sculpt the basic shape for your terrain and then simply export a heightmap through the Extract Texture Maps option. I was wondering if there's a way to do this inside 3D coat when using Voxels? There's a File->Export ->Export depth along Y function that I think you will find pretty handy for this kind of task. No need to go through Retopo Room. Edited January 4, 2014 by ajz3d 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member alvordr Posted January 9, 2014 Advanced Member Report Share Posted January 9, 2014 I did this, but never bothered with Mudbox. I created a heightmap and then used it as a mask on a thin-ish box from the top down perspective: http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11351&page=4#entry95901 This allowed me to get the affect I was after. Certainly, there are many ways to do this, but this was an experiment for me with 3D Coat to see how well it would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TorQueMoD Posted January 14, 2014 Author Member Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 There's a File->Export ->Export depth along Y function that I think you will find pretty handy for this kind of task. No need to go through Retopo Room. Yes! This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contributor Ascensi Posted July 17, 2018 Contributor Report Share Posted July 17, 2018 On 1/4/2014 at 7:30 PM, ajz3d said: There's a File->Export ->Export depth along Y function that I think you will find pretty handy for this kind of task. No need to go through Retopo Room. hi there, I was looking for that in the new version of 3DCoat V 4.8.16 but doesn't seem to exist, has it been removed or renamed to something else? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted July 17, 2018 Report Share Posted July 17, 2018 Hi Sculpt room > Surface mode Using v4.8.18 the command is still there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Innovine Posted July 10, 2019 Advanced Member Report Share Posted July 10, 2019 I am looking for a way to get better heightmap data out of 3d-coat. The "Export Depth Along Y" creates an EXR file with the heightmap, but it is blurry and soft looking, and if you also generate the normalmap, you can see the rest of the detail goes in there. Is there a way to get a pure heightmap out of 3d-coat, containing all the available height data? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted July 10, 2019 Report Share Posted July 10, 2019 Hi Is this video useful for your workflow ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Innovine Posted July 10, 2019 Advanced Member Report Share Posted July 10, 2019 Thanks for that, I hadn't seen it. I did find a different tutorial on the sam etechnique for exporting Displacement maps, which I've tried, but the result is quite similar, the exported map is soft and blurred. To give you an idea, here is my sculpt room: Then I create a retopo mesh and bake a displacement map, and I get this: Now, although the contrast is very poor here, I think the detail has mostly been baked ok. For instance, the cracks in the 3 o clock position are still visible. Then I export the displacement map and I get: Those cracks and the fine details have all disappeared. It looks pretty low resolution to me, even though the filesize is 2k (bigger than first image above where there is plenty of detail). Am I doing something wrong here? I was expecting the heightmap to look something like the first image.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 Are you exporting as 32bit file ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Innovine Posted July 11, 2019 Advanced Member Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 (edited) 9 hours ago, Carlosan said: Are you exporting as 32bit file ? There are no options related to bit depth when exporting Displacement maps. There's only the grey´/black level, normalization, and the choice of file format. I've gone through each file format now, and exported with different normalization settings, and notice that each format is 8bit, apart from .tiff, which is 32bit. AND, with the tiff image, it looks much lighter/brighter than the others. The "Levels" tool in photoshop looks identical in each, so I am at a bit of a loss to explain that. 32bit greyscale tiff, zero is black, normalized: 8bit RGB png, zero is black, normalized: I do see a little bit more detail in the png, which maybe suggests its getting lost with bit depth.. I guess the next question is why the 32bit tiff doesn't look as normalized? Photoshop shows the output level to go to 255 in both, is that a PS limitation? The EXR is also 32bit, and looks brighter like the tiff. I still can't see all the detail though... is it just possible that the detail is there and not visible to the naked eye without lighting effects? I've tried transforming my object larger and smaller, which does not seem to make a difference. Does anyone know what the message on outputting means: "Depth factor for saved texture: 36,029" ? Edited July 11, 2019 by Innovine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 There are two specific ways you can get your maps out when done texturing/sculpting: 1) Go to File>Export. In the export prompt will be an option for displacement maps (with further options for displacement maps). Choose your options and hit export, save to disk. 2) Go to Textures>Export>(Choose your Displacement map option), you'll be prompted to save to disk. Different formats allow for higher bit depths too. For example choosing TIF will save a 16-bit greyscale displacement map and EXR will be 32-bit. That message on output is explained on this video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advanced Member Innovine Posted July 11, 2019 Advanced Member Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, Carlosan said: There are two specific ways you can get your maps out when done texturing/sculpting: 1) Go to File>Export. In the export prompt will be an option for displacement maps (with further options for displacement maps). Choose your options and hit export, save to disk. 2) Go to Textures>Export>(Choose your Displacement map option), you'll be prompted to save to disk. Different formats allow for higher bit depths too. For example choosing TIF will save a 16-bit greyscale displacement map and EXR will be 32-bit. That message on output is explained on this video Thanks. I'm doing this. Why are mine all blurry? That message on output is explained on this video I believe his exact words when this message came up were "blahblahblahblahblaah". Edited July 11, 2019 by Innovine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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