While other shading activities (such as bump mapping) take place at render time, displacement takes place before rendering.

In the case of bump mapping, although the surface appears modified, the outline and the shadow are the same as the original object's outline and shadow.ĭisplacement is different from other kinds of shading in that it modifies the actual object surface. In the case of displacement mapping, the surface is actually modified, which leads to correct outline, shadow, and GI. The displacement map in this case is a 3D Gradient Ramp (procedural) map the 3D mapping method was used. Notice the round outline of the sphere and its shadow in the case of bump mapping, and the deformed outline produced by the displacement. Here is an example of the same object rendered with bump mapping and with displacement mapping. In contrast with bump mapping, which works by just changing the surface normal to create the illusion of surface detail, displacement mapping modifies the surface itself. Displacement mapping is a technique for adding geometric detail to surfaces at render time.

Vray displacement