How to mix two displacement maps? Tweet

[galleon27]

Looked at your file. There are a few things you need to know. Displacement maps are data maps so the color space should be set to Non-color Data. Since they are data maps, you should avoid using jpegs since jpegs are 8bit. For best results, always use 32bit images for displacements. Mid-level for all quixel displacement maps should be set to 0.5.

For some reason, using attributes for mixing doesn't work. Maybe it's a bug or some limitation. Maybe Juanjo could check that out.
Using procedurals to mix works fine.

[Admin_KeenSWH]

Looked at your file. There are a few things you need to know. Displacement maps are data maps so the color space should be set to Non-color Data. Since they are data maps, you should avoid using jpegs since jpegs are 8bit. For best results, always use 32bit images for displacements. Mid-level for all quixel displacement maps should be set to 0.5.

For some reason, using attributes for mixing doesn't work. Maybe it's a bug or some limitation. Maybe Juanjo could check that out.
Using procedurals to mix works fine.

Thanks for your reply,

Yes of course I did try EXR 32bit versions of those maps too - same problem - they just don't mix at all.

Note that even if I disable the displacement texture that should be in the black area - the first displacement texture is still displacing the surface but in some weird way:

[Admin_KeenSWH]

I really need help with this guys, I know in Arnold it is possible to mix two displacement maps but I don't want to switch to Arnold only because of this tiny feature really.

If this feature is not existing in Octane yet - would it be possible to include it into a wishlist you guys might have?

[juanjgon]

For some reason, using attributes for mixing doesn't work. Maybe it's a bug or some limitation. Maybe Juanjo could check that out.
Using procedurals to mix works fine.

This is a known core limitation.

-Juanjo

[Admin_KeenSWH]

This is a known core limitation.
-Juanjo

For some reason, using attributes for mixing doesn't work. Maybe it's a bug or some limitation. Maybe Juanjo could check that out.
Using procedurals to mix works fine.

Thanks for your feedback guys, I appreciate it. So the way I understood currently mixing two displacement maps by attribute value is not possible - no problem. But mixing by some procedural noise - does work.

Could you suggest some workaround to this? For example in C4D there is a workaround - to feed both textures (mixed by attribute) to a Baking Texture Node first, bake both mixed textures into one, and then feed that baked result into Displacement Node. I tried that in Houdini but it didn't work either unfortunately. So I was thinking maybe there is some other Houdini-specific workaround for this? Is it possible to convert attribute float values to some grayscale map and feed it as a mix?

[galleon27]

This is a known core limitation.
-Juanjo

For some reason, using attributes for mixing doesn't work. Maybe it's a bug or some limitation. Maybe Juanjo could check that out.
Using procedurals to mix works fine.

Thanks for your feedback guys, I appreciate it. So the way I understood currently mixing two displacement maps by attribute value is not possible - no problem. But mixing by some procedural noise - does work.

Could you suggest some workaround to this? For example in C4D there is a workaround - to feed both textures (mixed by attribute) to a Baking Texture Node first, bake both mixed textures into one, and then feed that baked result into Displacement Node. I tried that in Houdini but it didn't work either unfortunately. So I was thinking maybe there is some other Houdini-specific workaround for this? Is it possible to convert attribute float values to some grayscale map and feed it as a mix?

Here you go. I've attached the file.
You can just import attributes into COPs and use that as a texture.

Cheers.

[Admin_KeenSWH]

Here you go. I've attached the file.
You can just import attributes into COPs and use that as a texture.
Cheers.

Oh wow, that's definitely a solution! Thanks a lot!