# Displacement

Displacement adds real, fine surface relief to your character — skin pores, deep wrinkles, fabric weave — by physically pushing geometry around at render time, based on displacement maps. It's more expensive than a normal map, but it produces genuine silhouette detail that catches light realistically.

This only applies to characters exported **with displacement maps** (Character Creator 5 exports these for many assets). No maps, no effect — these controls just have nothing to act on.

![True Displacement in Karma, cranked up](../static/true_displacement.png)

## Displacement controls

The Displacement folder lives inside the Skin folder on the controller.

![](../static/displacement-folder.png)

### Mode

How displacement maps are used:

* **Disable Displacement Shader** _(default)_ — maps are ignored. Fastest, and a fine default for most work.
* **Bump** — uses the map as a bump map, faking the lighting detail cheaply without moving geometry. A good middle ground.
* **True Displacement** — actually subdivides and displaces the geometry for real silhouette-level detail. The most realistic and most expensive option; it requires the mesh to be subdivided at render time.

!!!info
Start with **Disable** or **Bump** while you work, and switch to **True Displacement** only for final hero renders where the extra detail matters and the longer render time is worth it.
!!!

### Displacement Strength

Scales how far the displacement pushes the surface. Displacement maps are sensitive, so the useful values are small — around **0.002** is typical. If the surface looks like it's exploding or cracking, the strength is too high; bring it down.

!!!warning
True Displacement requires the mesh to be treated as a subdivision surface and diced finely by Karma — the tool sets this up automatically when you choose that mode. It costs both render time and memory.
!!!