Displacement mapping: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:10, 1 June 2016

Revision as of 15:10, 1 June 2016

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'''Displacement mapping''' is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to [[bump mapping]], [[normal mapping]], and [[parallax mapping]], using a ([[procedural texture|procedural]]-) [[texture mapping|texture-]] or [[heightmap|height map]] to cause an effect where the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface are ''displaced'', often along the [[Locally|local]] [[surface normal]], according to the value the texture function evaluates to at each point on the surface. It gives surfaces a great sense of depth and detail, permitting in particular self-occlusion, [[self-shadowing]] and silhouettes; on the other hand, it is the most costly of this class of techniques owing to the large amount of additional geometry.

For years, displacement mapping was a peculiarity of high-end rendering systems like [[PhotoRealistic RenderMan]], while realtime [[Application programming interface|APIs]], like [[OpenGL]] and [[DirectX]], were only starting to use this feature. One of the reasons for this is that the original implementation of displacement mapping required an [[TesselationTessellation (computer graphics)|adaptive tessellation]] of the surface in order to obtain enough [[micropolygon]]s whose size matched the size of a pixel on the screen.

==Meaning of the term in different contexts==