linear gradient ramp

[Daniel Doerksen]

something has been troubling me for the past few months in my mind,

 

when creating a gradient ramp in photoshop to us as a displacement map in any 3d software. how would u make it so that it doesnt come out as a curve, rather how would you create it so that its a hard line gradually increasing from white to black in a straight line? for instance a height map of a shingle?

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Up on the options bar running across the top of the screen when you pick gradient are five little buttons showing different grad shapes. The first is linear.

[Daniel Doerksen]

thanks for the reply, however thats not the issue. if u create a linear gradient that takes up a complete lets say 512x512 box. Then look at the levels you will see a shape resembling a halfpipe(exponential curve. which makes sence but what i want is a linear transition from black to white. not an exponential curve.

 

my temporary bypass method i made was to use a height map i created in 3ds max

 

heres a diagram to better explain what im after.

 

i had had a thought earlier that it might have to do with the gamma curve.

if photoshop was working 1.0 and 3ds max in 2.2, then the linear representation of it would be altered.