hey there guys,
so i started messing with HD Geo today. from the screen shot you can see HD Geo activated and it took my 12 mil active points to like 24 mil.
have got 8k UV’s applied, not sure if that has anything to do with why i am getting “jaggy” skin alpha on geo ???
not sure if it matter but my document size is like 3k.
any thoughts on this ?? 
At a glance it looks like there is not quite enough HD resolution.
It could also be an issue with the alpha itself. If the alpha itself is low res and pixelated, this can cause issues. I think the vanilla Zbrush alphas are fairly low rez, but could be wrong on this. I try to make sure my alphas always have a very slight blur to soften the edges a bit and make the transitions not quite so severe.
As always, know the level of scrutiny your intended output will have to endure before you drive yourself crazy over it. Detail that fine probably wouldn’t show up in a 3d print at all, and the viewer would have to have an extreme closeup to view it in any rendered images to notice it, especially after anti-aliasing.
so should i divide the HD Geo ?
the target is a close up as you see in the screen shot. the impact is of the fine detail you see in the gorillas tight close up. still have “hair” to add to the darn mix once i figure this out. joy 
am using the “built in” alphas can try to find better alphas and see if it makes a difference.
Giving it another HD divide would seem to be the easiest solution.
One thing I notice though it is looks better in some areas than others–namely areas were the z-intensity isn’t as intense. Consider dialing that down and not “stamping it in” as hard. Detail this fine will only be seen as surface texture, and you only need enough surface indentation to catch the light.
If the base geometry is heavily distorted or stretched in areas, this can also cause issues. You want consistently shaped, evenly distributed quads for ideal sculpting performance in any situation.
you raise some great points that i’ll try to investigate.
the “base geo” uniformity being a big one.
for simply a key shot render, do you think one should do this kind of detail in “bump” map texture or displace in normal as is ?
wanting the easiest route with the least taxing geo for key shot.
I have zero experience using HD Geo with Keyshot. I don’t know that it supports it natively, so I would think you’d have to export that kind of detail as a normal map. That’s really the only way to use HD Geo info anywhere outside of zbrush. But again, I just don’t know for certain.
I know you’ve been having a lot of problems with this project, and you want to get a really ambitious level of detail into the face for closeups. So I’ll again just leave you with some general tips:
Optimize your base (low poly) mesh. If most of the detail and scrutiny is going into the face, that is where most of the polygons need to be. Polygons on the feet and in the armpits don’t do anything for you except increase your poly burden when subdivided. ZRemesher has a useful feature that allows you to “paint” areas where you want more or less poly density when remeshing. Likewise, you can manually go through and eliminate loops with zmodeler where they aren’t doing much for you. Obviously you can always manually retopo for hyper optimization–typically necessary for game or animation work.
Develop the discipline to get any frequent mesh editing or remeshing done at the mid-high poly sculpting stage, before moving onto super high density surface detail work. You know from experience that extreme polycounts become difficult for many functions to handle.
Zbrush is capable of working with extreme polycounts, but this kind of geo is useless for anything other than rendering in zbrush, or generating and exporting image maps from, as most other programs and even many zbrush features can’t handle it well.
Keyhot can handle fairly dense meshes from zbrush (but not ultra dense), but probably not at the level of poly density you’d need for detail that fine. So I think the optimal for keyshot would be to send a medium high density version of the mesh for the silhouette and gross detail, and rely on a normal map for the fine surface detail. Again though, I don’t have much expertise in this area.
All very good points. I have this feeling that goes with much of what your saying.
am sure there is a way to get this level of detail through an optimized mesh or lower poly mesh.
Think I’ve seen this level of detail that I am going for close up without HD Geo.
So much to still learn. At first it was proportions and now it seems more proper workflow than anything else.
will keep trying