Bump or displace?

[tricky]

In general, on a flat stainless steel object, would a simple displacement map render faster than a bump map when using LC and IMap to render?

The map is a simple diamond pattern that makes the stainless steel look 'quilted'. The reason for my question is that I read somewhere ages ago that LC doesn't like bump maps.

[vlado]

Bump map would be faster, of course. For secondary bounces, the light cache will be fine with the bump map, so long as you use something else as a primary engine.

Best regards,
Vlado

[tricky]

OK, thanks Vlado.

[Morbid Angel]

i would say that most of the time, high precision detail gets lost in the displacement, for many reasons, so we use generate two maps from the displacement, one map that is the displacement in all its glory, the other, is the high detail map, which is used eather as a bump map or a diffuse map or combination, to brigh out the details.