JoePublic posted at 9:38 AM Sun, 9 April 2023 - #4461444

Micropolygon displacement is one of the main reasons I'm currently sticking with Firefly.

(See my Don (veins) and Fokker (grass) renders in my Gallery)

BUT...

Just as the P5 Don mesh has currently BUILT IN musculature topology that makes (overkill) subdivision unnecessary, one could easily design a similar figure with BUILT IN vein detail. (Or even skeleton detail, for that matter)

He now has just 25.000 polys, btw. Double that, and you could have pretty much all the realistic detail you want without the need for additional displacement.

Grass OTOH could be substituted with hair:

(True Instancing or improved transparency handling also could substitute displacement grass)

*

My point is: Microdisplacement is cool to have. VERY cool to have.

But instancing, an improved hair-room, faster transparency handling and especially better figure (and prop) design could make up for its lack in Superfly.

Definitely. I've just been making up for its lack in Superfly since I started using Superfly, and it's the one thing that keeps popping up as a really noticeable lack for me. I couldn't care less about ray-traced previews, myself, but different strokes for different folks. I'm more concerned about things that affect my final render's appearance and I can't help noticing when my textured edges are flat because they're not displaced. Can't go back to Firefly now, though, it just looks so flat to me after messing with Superfly for so long. So it's something outside of Cycles that Blender does for its displacement?