Mudbox fail

UPDATE: Finally got it to work! I had to redo the textures on a combined mesh though.
Settings in Mudbox > Subdivision method > 32 bit EXR (rgba) file.
Make sure the plugin to read OpenEXR is loaded in Maya
Put in the file texture and make sure Alpha as luminance is checked off under Color Balance.
Maya appears to reject 32-bit float TIFFs and throws up a bunch of error messages but mentalray still renders it. No problems with EXR though.

The texture isn't as detailed or bumpy as I'd like, but I'm not willing to sacrifice render time at this point in the game.

-----------

I think Mudbox has become my most hated program in the span of 10 hours. I got my skeletal hand texture down in Mudbox - but frustratingly, have not been able to export it properly. The raytrace method creates insane amounts of artefacts in the Displacement Map. The Subdivision method just refuses to work with my object (containing multiple meshes). Even when I managed to get the subdivision method to work by going back to the original .obj and combining the mesh, and redoing the texturing - I ran into new issues. Maya can't read 32-bit float IFFs (or other file formats) properly. Considering Mudbox is an Autodesk product meant to work with Maya, I am pretty frustrated with this.
If I use 8-bit, Mudbox creates a displacement map in which the background is grey. Furthermore, Mudbox enjoys crashing every time I export if I keep "preview as bump map" checked.

Ahhhhhh!

I tested Mudbox two months ago on a simpler object and it seemed to work when I exported and brought the map into Maya. Otherwise, I would not have waited until now to texture the hand - I did not anticipate all these issues (silly me, I should know better by now).

Look at this beautiful displacement map Mudbox gave me through Raytrace method. I believe this is blooper-reel worthy...

Then I got pretty annoyed and decided to actually model the bumps (not a good idea lol)

Basically my options are:
1. Paint textures by hand (trying this in PS, but my UV maps aren't very good because I didn't anticipate this so I will probably have to re-UV map, very time consuming)
2. Apply a procedural texture - this has potential, but I will have to really work on it to get something that looks good.

This sets me behind schedule quite a bit. I'm thinking I may just
1. Actually model some larger grooves in just to indicate it is an arthritic joint
2. Use bump vs. displacement to save on render time, though it doesn't look as good

Mudbox, it could've been beautiful... :(

Will sleep on it and think some more.