Wall Worm Forums

Displacements in WW are very tightly controlled Editable Poly objects that have a very specific structure and custom attribute tied to them. They can only be created directly inside 3ds Max with any kind of sanity. I know that you are hoping to generate and edit these in external apps but that is not going to be an easy quest for you. I know the ins-and-outs of the system like no one else on this planet and I wouldn't bother with even trying it because you are already working inside the world's premier 3D editor in Max anyway.

But to explain the very basic technical requirements:

• All Displacements and their Displacement Brush (not the actual brush) should always be and remain forever Editable Poly objects. Using other types of object types (editable mesh) will cause errors.
• Each Displacement is composed of 2-3 objects: 1) Displacement; 2) Displacement Brush; 3) Optional Actual Brush
• Each Displacement and Displacement Brush must always be identical in vertex count, vertex order and face count.
• The vertex order in the displacement must ALWAYS match the vertex order of a native Max Plain object that has either 4, 8 or 16 length/width segements that is converted to ediable poly
• UVs should never be relaxed; ALL UVS in a displacement must remain projected planar to the displacement as if it was flat (before sculpted); UV transformations (rotation, scale, offset) should only be edited uniformly across the entire displacement (like when using a UVW Xform modifier.
• Displacements will only export if they have the correct custom attributes applied to the displacement and the displacement brush
• Even if the displacements have custom attributes designating them as displacements, they must properly reference the displacement brush and store valid data relating to the displacement--likewise with the displacement brush
• If tied to an actual brush, the side it's tied to must always be 4-sided.

There may be even more that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head. All it takes is for anything to change (like vertex order, etc) and the displacement is broken. When exporting to FBX many of the values within the custom attribute and necessary parameters are lost because they are not retained in the FBX.

There isn't much more that I can add that will help at this moment other than I strongly urge you to just use 3ds Max to edit your displacements. Also, I see in your screen shot that you are using Max 2016. I strongly urge that you update to 2019.2 if that is a possibility. There are many speed enhancements that effect working with displacements (both creating and exporting).

Version 3.864 released on 11-10-2018

   * Convert Scene to Model: Added new Node Boolean option when Carver is installed.
   
   * Check For Problems: Fixed bug checking displacements when the source node side count is lower than the side specified in a displacement.
   
   * Entity Manager: Added Layer, Visgroup and Autovisgroup filtering.

Version 3.863 released on 11-7-2018

   * Convert Scene to Model: Updated clustering function to not crash when a modifier was on the nodes that was passing a sub-object selection up the stack.
   
   * Convert Scene to Model: Fixed some cases where culled models often losing correct material ID. This fix is limited and you should read the Known Issues for more information.
   
   * Convert Scene to Model: Added right-click option to Restage button to add a delete mesh modifier on mesh with a volume select set to the culling object.
   
   * Convert Scene to Model: Added new Opacity settings for the WWMT Helper.

   * SMD Importer: Updated the "Weld" option to always work.
   
   * Settings: Removed the global setting for whether the SMD Importer Weld function is used on skinned meshes. Now the choice in the SMD Importer UI is always used instead of needing global setting for skinned meshes.
   
   * Settings: Removed legacy buttons for setting paths by system environment variables.
   
   * Create Prop Zoo from VMF: Updated the prop zoo function to get props from func_instances.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Updated VMF Exporter to exclude content from any func_instance entity in scene (requires the Container node to be Open and allowing Edit in Place).
   
   * Auto Visgroups: Added auto visgroup for func_instance nodes as well as most info_node types.
   
   * WWMT: Added new WWMT Macro to Isolate Selected WWMT. When pressed, will select the meshes and WWMT Helpers and enter Isolate Selection mode. If none are selected, Isolates Selection on ALL WWMT Helpers in scene. Found in Wall Worm Model Tools menu.
   

I presumed you were doing meshes like in the opening post where a heightmap is a valid solution.

I think that you are going to have far more luck and less frustration by actually building the displacements inside 3ds Max. I understand this is challenging if you are not familiar with the sculpting tools in Max--but I think that the amount of time it takes to get successful arbitrary meshes into Source Engine displacements will not be worth it in the end. What you are hoping to accomplish has been something I have considered many times and several years of experience and expertise on this topic makes me conclude it's just not worth the hassle because of the very strict vertex and face ordering requirements and the way displacement information is stored in Max/WW.

There is a new video coming out soon that gives a current overview of working with displacements in WW. Perhaps that will help you.

Presuming that the objects are all valid ( so the Box primitives have all length segments/width segments / height segments of 1) then this is likely a XForm issue. You should generally not use Mirror function in Max (especially older Max). If you do mirror geometry, use the Reset Xform utility (in the Utility tab of command panel) on them before exporting. The problem is that Mirror often breaks the transformation of an object making it invalid with negative scales which can throw off the exporter.

Let me know if this helps.

You must misunderstand the information above. Editable Poly is supported for displacements. The All Quad Faces function in the displacement floater will convert all Quad Polygons of the selected objects into displacements (so each polygon becomes a displacement).

Unfortunately, an understanding of Max and WW displacements is necessary for successfully using the tools. But what you are looking for is already supported if you want to turn each quad into a single displacement.

Also, I did not answer all your questions. The Map Folder was not necessary since I added an actual full map path in the map list. The folder is necessary if you are importing multiple maps in the same folder and don't pass a list. It was just already in my defaults.