9

514 Chapter 8: Modifiers
Displace Mesh Modifier ( World
Space)
Select an object. > Modify panel > Modifier List >
World-Space M odifiers > * Displace Me sh
The Displace Mesh world-space modifier (World
Space) lets you see the effect of displacement
mapping (page 2–1511) on editable mesh objects
(page 1–996) and objects w ith a Disp Approx
modifier (page 1–628) applied to them. If a
displacement map is applied to the object, the
mesh shows the effect of the displacement map.
DisplaceMeshreplacesthemeshwithitsdisplaced
version.
There are two main reasons for using Displace
Mesh:
• As a visualization aid to see the effect of
a displacement map in viewports, and to
compare the placement of displaced objects
w ith other objects in the scene.
For example, if you use an animated
displacement map to create waves on a water
surface, you might temporarily apply Displace
Meshtoseewheretheripplesmeetthewaterline
of a boat.
When you use Displace Mesh in this way,
usually you delete it once you’ve obtained the
effect you want.
• To obtain an editable mesh created from a
displacement map
To u s e the D i s place Me s h th is w ay, you app l y
it to the object that has a displacement map,
then apply the Snapshot command (page 1–453)
fromtheToolsmenu,andchooseMeshasthe
clone method.
Snapshot creates a permanently d isplaced mesh.
As it does for other kinds of objec ts, Snapshot
also leaves the original, displacement-mapped
object in the scene. After applying Snapshot,
you can delete the orig i nal object, or you c an
keep it in your scene to use for other purposes.
Tip: Use Disp Approx to displace editable
meshes. Use Displace Mesh for previewing,
as in the first item, but avoid using Snapshot.
The mesh created by using Displace Mesh and
Snapshot can have a high polygon count. This
makes it slow to use interactively, and can cause
smoothing problems, where the underlying
mesh edges are visible.
Interfa ce
TherolloutforDisplaceMeshletsyouchoose
which surface approximation settings are used to
produce the mesh.
Update M esh—Updates the mesh if you have
changed the displacement mapping and want
to see the results of the change. The mesh isn’t