Nintendo patents in displacement mapping

[KiD_a]

I think this news has made things a little more interesting. Now I have gone on record in various places (in blog for example - ) doubting the significance of this HD era guff. Perhaps it is because I live in the UK and HD enabled TV channels are pretty much unheard of. Uptake of HD televisions (certainly at the high end of the scale) will take a long time. In any case if displacement mapping is as good as it sounds, which seems likely, it certainly gives a lot of power to Nintendo's arm.