[Bf-cycles] 2.66 plans

[Michael Fox]

  On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 3:39 AM, Matthew Heimlich 
<matt.heimlich at gmail.com> wrote:
>> When you say your intention is to drop subdivision support, are you talking
>> about the auto-dicing that's been in experimental mode for a while? I'd be
>> in agreement with this, as even Arnold just uses the same "set subdivision
>> level" method that's been in Blender for ages.
> Right. I think auto dicing to get a certain face size rather than
> subdivision level still has some use for displacement, but it can be
> done in a modifier too.
>
I don't like this as proper subdivision allows you to get the amount of 
detail required in modern renderers without trillions of polygons which 
modifiers will give.

for path tracers this is what is generally used

http://www.cs.utah.edu/~bes/papers/height/paper.html