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I know, Maxwell displacement does not use existing rendermeshes to deform the geometry at rendertime. For product-designers however, having a high-poly mesh data at disposal could turn out as an extremely valueable tool. We could build a base model and add some details which were laborous to model with displacement-maps. We could tweak those to desire and create some renderings to show them to our clients. When the customer likes what we have, it was great, to get hold of what made our renderings look so good, like this is possible in a couple of other render-engines too.

Extracted meshes could be used:
- For quick mesh-based Rapid Prototyping
- For building proper Nurbs-geometry from meshes which as yet only looked good (using Reverse-Engineering techniques)

My question is: Is what Maxwell uses at rendertime (after applying its vector-displacement) again a mesh internally? Would it be possible to extract that data?

Thanks, Holger

Great idea!

Pretty sure it's pure math - no hidden meshes involved.

Technically, you can take your displacement map and apply it to a displace modifier in Max to a super high poly mesh and get the same result.

Thank you JD! It could be so, but maybe there is some point, where it was easy to translate the math-result to meshes. I'd really appreciate an answer of one of the big brains on this!

I wished, that the Maxwell product development started to reflect, that it is not only used in entertainment/graphical contexts but inside packages like Rhino/Solidworks and FormZ also by users with a (physical) production geared mindset like industrial designers or architects.
Also graphical representation in these industries have different demands, that is why I don't get tired to wish for additional options to render curves and dimensions, besides NPR-shaders. Both, mesh extractions as well as options to mix photorealism with illustration style are available in quite a few mayor render-engines. See also: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=26792

Bubbaloo: Yes, I am aware of that option. But I bet, it will not look the same.

I would be happy somebody giving me a clear anwer on my question.
If this is the wrong place for requests like this, please advice.

Thanks, Holger