Demo at GDC - Vector Displacement Mapping

So while at GDC, Autodesk was showcasing a technology (completely unfamiliar to me) that really caught my eye - vector displacement mapping.

(Note: the vector map is a HDR image, so the full range can't be displayed properly)

On the left, you can see that it's obviously just a regular displacement map, but on the right we see something much different. This unfamiliar map further calculates the 'displaced' geometry by using the high-res model's UV coordinates along with the low-res to create a correspondence between the two.

"This correspondence allows the map to encode not only how far away one vertex is from the nearest vertex on the other mesh, but also to move the vertex across all three axes in space. This allows the map to encode complex undercuts, for example under a mushroom cap or behind an ear."

Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPezIU0c4zc