# Using Hou-DisplacementX

## Seed versus Randomize

**Seed** decides where every shape lands; every other control decides what each shape looks like. The same Seed and settings give the same map at any resolution, so a layout you like at 1024 still holds at 4096 - the web version cannot do that.

## Generator

**Iterations** sets how many shapes get drawn, one type per iteration, at random. **Background** is the starting grey. **Seamless** wraps shapes across the edges - lines ignore it. **Invert** flips raised and recessed.

## Shapes

Rectangles, Grid, Columns and Rows share a header checkbox, **Brightness**, **Opacity** (both Min-Max) and **Scale**. Grid, Columns and Rows add **Amount** and **Gap**. Lines add **Width** instead. A shape type left off still takes its share of the iterations, so the rest do not get denser.

## Sprites

**Enable Sprites** is off by default. Tick one or more of the four packs - Classic, Big Data, Aggromaxx, Crap Pack - and each sprite draws from all ticked packs at once. **Rotate** turns each sprite a random multiple of 90 degrees about the image centre, moving it as well as turning it - on a non-square image that can land it partly off-canvas. Sprites sample a 512 px cell with no mip-mapping, so a very small one can shimmer.

## Blend Modes

Every shape picks one of the ticked modes at random; none ticked means Normal. Normal alone gives clean stacked panels - Difference, Exclusion or the light modes break layers into each other. Ticking a mode never moves a shape: layout comes from Seed alone.

## Outputs

Four layers: `height`, `normal` (**Normal Strength**), `basecolor` (height through **Color Gradient**), `id` (last shape touching each pixel). These names are what Houdini Engine for Unreal reads for texture types. For a Copernicus terrain, wire `height` into a Mono to HeightField COP; for a SOP heightfield, use the Heightfield node.

## The Heightfield node

Nothing wired: a `height` volume and empty `mask` for the HeightField SOPs. **Size** is its width in scene units, matching the HeightField SOP's default; the other side follows Resolution's aspect. **Height Scale** is how tall full-white stands.

Geometry wired into **Geometry to Displace**: triplanar displacement along the normals, no UVs needed. **Tile Size**, **Tile Offset**, **Blend Sharpness** control the projection; **Displace Amount** how far white pushes out; **Midpoint** which grey stays put. Seamless is forced on. **Output** adds the normal, basecolor and id layers alongside the result. **Show Color** previews the Color Gradient - off by default, since it replaces any existing material.

## Tips and traps

- Cook cost scales with iterations times pixel count - iterate at 1024, then switch up.
- The `id` output drives per-panel variation downstream.
- Lines always span the whole image; Seamless does not affect them.
- A shape type left off still costs iterations.
- Displacement only moves points that exist - dense geometry matters most.
- The first press of **Randomize All** in a session checks for updates.