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Displacement mapping

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Other renderers that require the modeling application to deliver objects pre-tessellated into arbitrary polygons or even triangles have defined the term displacement mapping as moving the vertices of these polygons. Often the displacement direction is also limited to the surface normal at the vertex.
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This difference between displacement mapping in micropolygon renderers vs. displacement mapping in a non-tessellating (macro)polygon renderers can often lead to confusion in conversations between people whose exposure to each technology or implementation is limited. Even more so, as in recent years,
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Recent developments seem to indicate that some of the renderers that use sub-pixel displacement move towards supporting higher level geometry too. As the vendors of these renderers are likely to keep using the term sub-pixel displacement, this will probably lead to more obfuscation of what
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Sub-pixel displacement commonly refers to finer re-tessellation of geometry that was already tessellated into polygons. This re-tessellation results in micropolygons or often microtriangles. The vertices of these then get moved along their normals to achieve the displacement mapping.
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many non-micropolygon renderers have added the ability to do displacement mapping of a quality similar to that which a micropolygon renderer is able to deliver naturally. To distinguish between the crude pre-tessellation-based displacement these renderers did before, the term
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do not alter pixel colors (as is much more common), but instead change the position of vertices. Unlike bump, normal and parallax mapping, all of which can be said to "fake" the behavior of displacement mapping, in this way a genuinely
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While conceptually similar, those polygons are usually a lot larger than micropolygons. The quality achieved from this approach is thus limited by the geometry's tessellation density a long time before the renderer gets access to it.
276:. Micropolygon renderers commonly tessellate geometry themselves at a granularity suitable for the image being rendered. That is: the modeling application delivers high-level primitives to the renderer. Examples include true 188:, 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, 454: 303:
True micropolygon renderers have always been able to do what sub-pixel-displacement achieved only recently, but at a higher quality and in arbitrary displacement directions.
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at arbitrarily high frequencies. The use of the term mapping becomes arguable then, as no texture map is involved anymore. Therefore, the broader term
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and silhouettes; on the other hand, it is the most costly of this class of techniques owing to the large amount of additional geometry.
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techniques (that increases the number of rendered polygons according to current viewing settings) to produce highly detailed meshes.
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being used to modulate the displacement strength. The displacement direction is usually the local surface normal. Today, many
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The first commercially available renderer to implement a micropolygon displacement mapping approach through REYES was
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is often used today to refer to a super concept that also includes displacement based on a texture map.
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to cause an effect where the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface are
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surface can be produced from a texture. It has to be used in conjunction with adaptive
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For years, displacement mapping was a peculiarity of high-end rendering systems like
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Displacement mapping includes the term mapping which refers to a
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is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to
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Real-Time Relief Mapping on Arbitrary Polygonal Surfaces
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Parallax Occlusion Mapping in GLSL on sunandblackcat.com
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whose size matched the size of a pixel on the screen.
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State of the art of displacement mapping on the gpu
49:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. 383:Relief Mapping of Non-Height-Field Surface Details 239:which can create high quality (multidimensional) 448: 8: 144:Displacement mapping with SVG filter effects 307:displacement mapping really stands for, in 455: 441: 433: 296:was introduced to describe this feature. 223:Meaning of the term in different contexts 215:of the surface in order to obtain enough 109:Learn how and when to remove this message 314:In reference to Microsoft's proprietary 404: 7: 47:adding citations to reliable sources 14: 261:, or similar approaches based on 137: 125: 23: 34:needs additional citations for 1: 353:Blender Displacement Mapping 132:Displacement mapping in mesh 16:Computer graphics technique 586: 464:Texture mapping techniques 316:High Level Shader Language 358:Vray Displacement Mapping 274:PhotoRealistic RenderMan 197:PhotoRealistic RenderMan 363:Relief Texture Mapping 294:sub-pixel displacement 58:"Displacement mapping" 478:Displacement mapping 309:3D computer graphics 282:subdivision surfaces 254:Renderers using the 237:programmable shading 152:Displacement mapping 43:improve this article 549:Environment mapping 241:procedural textures 181:, often along the 557: 556: 518:Occlusion mapping 199:, while realtime 119: 118: 111: 93: 577: 523:Specular mapping 488:Parallax mapping 457: 450: 443: 434: 427: 426: 424: 423: 417:NVIDIA Developer 409: 141: 129: 114: 107: 103: 100: 94: 92: 51: 27: 19: 585: 584: 580: 579: 578: 576: 575: 574: 570:Texture mapping 560: 559: 558: 553: 527: 466: 461: 431: 430: 421: 419: 411: 410: 406: 401: 349: 347:Further reading 337: 225: 149: 148: 147: 146: 145: 142: 134: 133: 130: 115: 104: 98: 95: 52: 50: 40: 28: 17: 12: 11: 5: 583: 581: 573: 572: 562: 561: 555: 554: 552: 551: 546: 544:Sphere mapping 541: 535: 533: 529: 528: 526: 525: 520: 515: 510: 505: 503:Relief mapping 500: 495: 490: 485: 483:Normal mapping 480: 474: 472: 468: 467: 462: 460: 459: 452: 445: 437: 429: 428: 403: 402: 400: 397: 396: 395: 387: 379: 371: 366: 360: 355: 348: 345: 344: 343: 336: 333: 224: 221: 190:self-shadowing 186:surface normal 143: 136: 135: 131: 124: 123: 122: 121: 120: 117: 116: 31: 29: 22: 15: 13: 10: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 582: 571: 568: 567: 565: 550: 547: 545: 542: 540: 537: 536: 534: 530: 524: 521: 519: 516: 514: 511: 509: 508:Alpha mapping 506: 504: 501: 499: 496: 494: 491: 489: 486: 484: 481: 479: 476: 475: 473: 469: 465: 458: 453: 451: 446: 444: 439: 438: 435: 418: 414: 408: 405: 398: 393: 392: 388: 385: 384: 380: 377: 376: 372: 370: 367: 364: 361: 359: 356: 354: 351: 350: 346: 342: 339: 338: 334: 332: 330: 326: 321: 317: 312: 310: 304: 301: 297: 295: 289: 285: 283: 279: 275: 271: 266: 264: 263:micropolygons 260: 257: 252: 250: 246: 242: 238: 234: 230: 222: 220: 218: 217:micropolygons 214: 210: 206: 202: 198: 193: 191: 187: 184: 180: 176: 172: 168: 165: 161: 157: 153: 140: 128: 113: 110: 102: 91: 88: 84: 81: 77: 74: 70: 67: 63: 60: –  59: 55: 54:Find sources: 48: 44: 38: 37: 32:This article 30: 26: 21: 20: 539:Cube mapping 513:Bump mapping 477: 420:. Retrieved 416: 407: 389: 382: 374: 329:tessellation 324: 313: 305: 302: 298: 293: 290: 286: 267: 253: 249:displacement 248: 226: 213:tessellation 194: 178: 151: 150: 105: 96: 86: 79: 72: 65: 53: 41:Please help 36:verification 33: 532:Environment 498:UVW mapping 320:texture map 229:texture map 493:UV mapping 422:2023-05-10 399:References 175:height map 169:, using a 69:newspapers 341:Heightmap 259:algorithm 233:renderers 179:displaced 99:June 2023 564:Category 335:See also 245:patterns 164:parallax 365:website 209:DirectX 203:, like 171:texture 167:mapping 83:scholar 235:allow 205:OpenGL 162:, and 160:normal 85:  78:  71:  64:  56:  471:Local 394:paper 386:paper 378:paper 325:rough 280:- or 278:NURBS 270:Pixar 256:REYES 183:local 90:JSTOR 76:books 243:and 207:and 201:APIs 156:bump 62:news 272:'s 173:or 45:by 566:: 415:. 311:. 158:, 456:e 449:t 442:v 425:. 112:) 106:( 101:) 97:( 87:· 80:· 73:· 66:· 39:.

Index


verification
improve this article
adding citations to reliable sources
"Displacement mapping"
news
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books
scholar
JSTOR
Learn how and when to remove this message
Cartesian transport
Polar transport
bump
normal
parallax
mapping
texture
height map
local
surface normal
self-shadowing
PhotoRealistic RenderMan
APIs
OpenGL
DirectX
tessellation
micropolygons
texture map
renderers

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