Hi PaQ, just one thing to keep in mind is that not everyone uses ZBrush for exporting to a rendering program - some people want to generate STL data to produce a physical model.

> And if you manage to get a nice end result in zbrush, but good
> luck to export and use that huge mesh in an other 3d package.

When you're trying to create a physical model, you absolutely need to export the huge frozen mesh data directly to the CAM or STL software, because it does not know anything about sub-d or render-time only methods at all, it only knows how to deal with direct geometry.

So for this type of use, you just cannot rely on a render-dependent workflow like you were describing.

When using this physical-model based approach, you can get good results by using "Divide larger than" at export time from MoI to get a finely diced up base mesh, and make sure to use "Export: Quads & Triangles" as well, since ZBrush does not handle n-gons properly (it just converts them to triangles by connecting all points of the n-gon to a single centroid point, which give you a bad result if the n-gon is concave).

Using this method can definitely work with great results - I demonstrated it specifically in this previous post:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=804.26

Also another example from a user:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1045.1

The sword and shield in that last link were created in this exact manner, and as you can see it is a great result - small details such as the knurled handle and embossed bits of the shield were added in ZBrush on top of the base object that was created in MoI.

You can see his final physical model result here:
http://www.3d-miniatures.com/tiki-browse_image.php?galleryId=1&sort_mode=created_desc&imageId=56&scalesize=o


So I definitely don't agree that it is an automatically bad decision to use MoI and ZBrush in combination with one another, there are a couple of examples there that specifically show how it can be a good combination especially for the right kind of target output where a heavy raw geometry result is actually required (STL/physical model generation).

But if your primary goal is to generate a "render displacement friendly" type output, with lighter base geometry, I certainly agree that target will not work with output from MoI into ZBrush because the MoI generated mesh is not suitable for use as a sub-d hull. Just keep in mind that not everyone has that exact same goal, some people are using it for physical model generation and not rendering.

- Michael