normal vs displacement

imk

Hi, i am wondering, for game modelling, in which situation do you use normal map instead of displacement map? If you are working for a client, do you need to ask him what sort of map is needed?

thanks

passerby

i think you need to go and read up on what they both do.

it;s not a either or thing they both do different things and are sometimes used together sometimes not.

and in the case of displacement map, the different ways the map can be used as well.

cdizzle

Are there any game engines that can handle real-time displacement? That's news to me, and would love to see it.

Ace-Angel

I honestly suggest reading up the PC wiki, the way you worded the questions makes me feel like you haven't read up on the basics of which map does what, but suffice to say, almost all of them in games only use Normal more times then not.

You can usually generate Normal maps for your displacement map, but that's a whole mess of it's own honestly.

And yes, it's common courtesy to ask your client what they need.

As for if anything uses RTD? Yes there are, UDK, CE3 come off the top of my head, but IIRC, you need DX11 capable cards for them.

If not, the next cheapest solution in DX9 would simple Vertex Displacement, limited to the number of vertices you have on a model (like oceans, waves, etc), and without the extra help of map, or you can Bumpoffset/Parallax by using a Disp. map, although again, it's much better suited for things which won't need the accuracy of seams.