Parallax occlusion mapping

Parallax occlusion mapping (POM) is an enhancement of the parallax mapping technique. Parallax occlusion mapping is used to procedurally create 3D definition in textured surfaces, using a displacement map (similar to a topography map) instead of through the generation of new geometry.^[1] This allows developers of 3D rendering applications to add 3D complexity in textures, which correctly change relative to perspective and with self occlusion in real time (self-shadowing is additionally possible), without sacrificing the processor cycles required to create the same effect with geometry calculations.^[2]

Parallax occlusion mapping was first published in 2005 by Zoe Brawley and Natalya Tatarchuk in ShaderX3.^[1] Natalya Tatarchuk conducted presentations of the technology at SIGGRAPH in 2005.^[3] It was used in ATI's 'Toy Shop Demo' to showcase the Radeon X1800's Ultra-Threaded SM 3.0 technology.^[4] It is used in video games and rendering engines such as Unigine,^[5] CryEngine 2,^[6] and CryEngine 3 and Unreal Engine 4.^[7] It has also been used to create stereoscopic images from single images.^[8]

• A closer look at POM on gamedev.net
• Dachsbacher, C., Tatarchuk, N. Prism Parallax Occlusion Mapping with Accurate Silhouette Generation as a .pdf
• Dachsbacher, C., Tatarchuk, N. Prism Parallax Occlusion Mapping with Accurate Silhouette Generation as a .mov
• Parallax Occlusion Mapping in GLSL on sunandblackcat.com^[usurped]