Rorschach posted at 6:12 AM Mon, 13 January 2025 - #4492806

What are the practical differences between the VectorDisplacement and the Displacement nodes? 

Vector displacement is primarily used in sculpting, but not exclusively. You can use it in Poser, Zbrush, Blender. and many other programs. Most sculpting tools are vector displacement based. Vector displacement is best suited for render engines that have some type of adaptive or micro displacement. But you can use it without it if you have the render memory needed for how ever much subdivision will be needed to render it.

Keep in mind that vector displacement basically needs files similar to a normal map for the detail to work correctly, with enough distinct steps in the maps. Obviously that will vary with the detail you actually need from the map. Most of the time you will use a 32 bit file (exr, tif, etc) at the resolution needed to retain the detail of the sculpt. Vector maps can add detail that literally isn't possible any other way, short of modeling it. 

You may never need vector displacement maps in Poser, but you might depending on what you are doing.

You could very well need them to create content for Poser. And will probably use them a lot if creating content for anything 3D..

Simple Blender demo on using Vector Displacement and creating the maps.