Creating a brick wall using Parallax Occlusion Mapping

Creating a more detailed level usually involves adding more geometrical detail to the objects used to populate it, something that can be achieved in multiple ways. We’ve already used Normal maps, a special type of texture that modifies the way light behaves when it reaches the surface of a given object. We also used Nanite meshes in the previous chapter, a novel method of bringing more triangles into our scenes. It is now time to explore Parallax Occlusion Mapping (POM), a texture-based approach to adding more detail to 3D objects.

This technique relies on textures to create more geometrical detail, in a process that might feel similar to using Normal maps. Unlike those textures, POM goes a bit further by actually pushing the pixels that represent our models outwards or inwards, creating a real 3D effect that we just can’t get with Normal maps. Relying on images to do this kind of job frees the CPU from having...