No, displacement mapping is the same as a bump map only it actually bends
the object's surface (the Isosurface patch can do this).

In respect to having the texture erode the object however, this is quite
complex.

Basically what it would mean is the the renderer would have to (when it hit
the texture with the erode keyword on whatever colour you've chosen) keep
tracing the path until it hit an area of a different colour (determine the
colour of each point through the object).  The problem with this is, while
it being very slow, it also has to have a way to determine if it's actually
hit the colour boundary... for instance, you could have an erode fade to a
solid colour, in which case the renderer would have to do a huge amount of
work!!!  Also, it then has to determine a surface normal for this newly
found point of colour which would be nearly impossible!

So basically, it's not possible by using a texture.  The only real way I
could see is to use the Isosurface patch to recreate the colour pattern as
an object and then difference this from the object which you want to erode.

--
Lance.


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