"Tim Attwood" <tim### [at] comcastnet> wrote:
> > Is the following method the only way to use displacement mapping in
> > Pov-Ray for
> > Windows using only freeware?
>
> No, there are almost too many ways to remember them all easily,
> depending what you mean by displacement mapping.
>
> POV comes with a few macros for creating mesh objects
> from a displacement image and an assumed basic shape.
>
> There are programs like Terragen and Worldmachine.
>
> There are other programs to convert from DEM format
> (real data) landscapes, though it's a hassle.
>
> You can manipulate almost any graphic tool available
> to output to POV.

Thanks all for the help.

From a short review of the articles on the web, I think that "displacement
mapping" differs from "normal mapping" and "bump mapping" in that "displacement
mapping" actually deforms the vertices of the object, whereas the others just
apply a texture to the object that gives the impression of a change in shape.
I'm not sure where this is significant.

It seems that PoseRay's displacement function is actually the application of a
bump map.

Originally I became interested while following a Blender tutorial, which was
labelled, to paraphrase, "Turning a 2d image into a 3d object".  An image of
the word "Blender", softened with Gaussian blur, is added as a "displacement
map"; it's also modified with subsurface scattering. the final product gives
the impression of being "embossed", as if pushed out from back to front.  It
might be useful for logos.

Finally, I wanted to give a heads up to an application found at
http://www.crazybump.com, which takes a photo and converts it into several
different kinds of maps.  It works great and it's free.

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