Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde> wrote:
> That depends on how you define displacement mapping.  If you say it is 
> "displacing the surface of a shape by an amount defined by an image or 
> function" this is well possible with isosurfaces.

  But saying "POV-Ray supports displacement mapping" is not completely
correct.
  It's exactly the same thing as saying "POV-Ray supports non-linear
transformations", which of course is not true.

  What POV-Ray supports are user-defined functions (and functions modified
by other functions) and rendering isosurfaces from them. There's no
explicit support for an algorithm called "displacement mapping" or
"non-linear transformation".

  To put it in another way: The "displacement" and "non-linear
transformation" are part of the modelling process performed by the
user, not something done by the POV-Ray rendering engine.
  You can't say "this renderer supports bending" simply because you
can create a mesh which looks bent and render it with that renderer
(ie. the question is: Who created the bent shape, the user or the
rendering engine?).

-- 
#macro N(D)#if(D>99)cylinder{M()#local D=div(D,104);M().5,2pigment{rgb M()}}
N(D)#end#end#macro M()<mod(D,13)-6mod(div(D,13)8)-3,10>#end blob{
N(11117333955)N(4254934330)N(3900569407)N(7382340)N(3358)N(970)}//  - Warp -

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