Bumpy grass on terrain

I always assumed Outerra used some sort of fractal algorithm with just simple normal-mapping, but after reading this piece I think they must use textures with a good parallax technique, though it seems you already knew that.

https://plus.google.com/116201034910678785066/posts/1S5YjCTCaWj

it does look very good :)
varying foliage is usually done by wang-tiles

Sorry, replied to wrong thread..

I don't have the first idea about how the terrain in that video is achieved (and I haven't read that thread posted, either), but one thing I notice is that there seem to be at least two different types of LOD at work, because I notice geometry sliding in and out as well as some discrete pops.

I wonder if maybe it isn't possible that the combination of LOD geometry and some kind of "fancy" lighting (this comes to mind) is sufficient even without parallax occlusion mapping.