SOS displacement maping!!!!!!!!!

[Kgeez]

i spent an hour modeling but and my displacement map looks fine but when ever i render it with my mesh it keeps looking like a jumbled pile of spikes PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I AM DOING WRONG! I attached a screens of the render.

[donta1979]

The Values for the displacement need to be turned down, or you have some really bright greys and whites causing it to pop too much

[liquidmetal]

I've never messed with rendering in Maya, but I can tell you that when I use a displacement map to deform geometry in Mudbox I set the intensity to .01; the render that you posted is exactly what happens when you have the intensity set way too high. Also, judging by the size of some of the spikes, it's possible that your geometry doesn't have enough subdivisions to handle the level of detail in the displacement map. It would help if you were to post your displacement map and a screenshot of your mesh with the "Wireframe on Shaded" box ticked.