[Solved] chunky depthmap going from 3DCoat to ZBrush after smoothing

[DanielWaterhorse]

Hello all! To be honest, I don't know if this is really a 3DCoat question or a ZBrush question, but I imagine there are many folks here that use them both together. Also ZBrush's forums are always weirdly inactive, while the folks on this forum are always super helpful

I'm trying to create a depth map for the details in a pair of pants. The UVs, color, and depth are all being done in 3DCoat before exporting back to ZBrush.

However, in areas where I've used the smooth brush on the depth map, it looks pretty good in 3DCoat, but in ZBrush I get a terrible gradient when applying the depth map, as shown in the image below. On the left is what it looks like in 3D coat while I'm working with it, on the right is that same object with color/depth imported into ZBrush.

I've fiddled around with various settings in both programs but have not been able to get rid of that jagged gradient in ZBrush. I feel maybe the range of values used for height is getting compressed down but I don't know if that is the case, or how to change it.

I find the smooth brush indispensable for getting the details right, so I can't just do away with that. Does anyone think they might have a solution for this issue? I'd appreciate any help! Thanks for taking the time to read.

Sincerely,

Daniel Waterhorse 

[Carlosan]

How are you exporting the depth map ?

[DanielWaterhorse]

With Layers->export->depth, zero level as grey. Settings for the layer itself are all the defaults. Generally save it as png, but also tried tif, with no noticeable difference

Edited August 23, 2017 by DanielWaterhorse

[Carlosan]

I export 32-bit displacement maps. It works really well. Here are the export settings I use:

 

- Another export option is this one

 

 

 

[DanielWaterhorse]

Thanks! At first I tried your method but with file type Tiff, and had the same issue. But then I switched it over to EXR and it looks fine in ZBrush now. I avoided that file type before because I was unfamiliar with it, but I guess that's what I needed.