Displacement mapping

Displacement Mapping

Displacement Mapping is an alternative technique to bump, normal, and offset mapping where the actual coordinated vertexes of the textured wireframe are increased or decreased LOD wise in real time in order to achieve greater heights of detail.

How it's done

Displacement is a of kind vertex-texture mapping, so the values of the texture map do not alter the pixel color, but change the position of the vertex instead. Unlike bump mapping, displacement mapping can produce a genuine "rough" surface. It is currently only implemented in a few desktop graphics adapters, which also use it in conjunction with tessellation (increases number of polygons), to produce highly detailed meshes, and to give a more 3D feel and a greater sense of depth and detail to textures which displacement mapping is applied to.