Quote - No can't compare Diffuse maps, Spec maps, or normal maps to displacement ,vector maps.

 

Quote - No you do not paint on the mesh.
You sculpt the mesh.

You do extract 3d information from a displacement ,vector map.

Think of displacement ,vector maps as a very high tech bump map.

 

Sorry Ron, but you are very wrong in this.

It seems you are coming from a zbrush perspective on this, and as such it may seem like you are sculpting the actual mesh. But if you were actually sculpting the "mesh" then you would be saving out a mesh with those millions of polygons.

But..you are not doing that. Once you save out the displacment map from zbrush, your mesh stays the same, and the MAP you made is what gives the renderer directions as to how to bump it up...but the actual mesh does NOT change.

The displacment map just gives the renderer information as to which areas bump up or sink down to give the "appearance" of being a higher resolution mesh. But it is just render information. It is not mesh information.

 

The only way it relates to the mes is in the UV mapping of the particular mesh..and that is the same as diffuse, spec, etc.

 

Rawn