Displacement

Displacement mapping utilizes a 2D texture map in order to generate 3D surface relief. As opposed to bump and normal mapping, Displacement mapping does not only provide the illusion of depth but it effectively displaces the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface.

Displacement mapping requires objects to have UV coordinates either with a typical projection type or unwrapped.

Displacement Parameters

Texture
This parameter accepts displacement maps generated in content creation software such as 3ds max, Maya, or ZBrush. 

Mid-level
This parameter defines the shift of the displacement in texture value range. If for example, a Zbrush export that has 0-displacement defined as 0.5, the Mid-level should be set to 0.5.

Level of details
Level of details control displacement map resolution.

Height
Height sets the displacement strength or the amount of displacement.

Currently Displacement in Octane is not compatible with bump/normal mapping. Displacement cannot be used together with a normal map or a bump map on the same material. Rendering a material which has a normal map and bump map along that material that has the displacement will result in artifacts.

Illustration of a Typical Displacement Node Graph