Vector Displacement

A Vector Displacement contains XYZ 3D Space Coordinates which have positive as well as negative values manipulating vertices.

Use the colors red, green and blue for coding, into which direction the vertices of a mesh shall be moved.

Vector Displacement Alphas are a preliminary (early stage) support of VDM alphas in Surface/Extruder tool. 3-channels, 32 bit EXR-s are treated as VDM-s.
Later it will be extended (picking VDM-s from any raw surface, color, making VDM from any model, support VDM-s in voxels and in all brushes).

The process is simple. Create a new folder in Brushes where to load 32bits exr vdm alphas.
Select Surface mode > Extruder tool
Paint or stamp over the mesh.

On Tool Option panel subdivision is helpful to add located detail and avoid to add res+ to whole mesh.

– Video done by user MIKE showing the use:  

Pick & Paste

The Pick & Paste Surface Sculpt Tool, located near the Extrude, allows you to grab a feature from a raw surface, create a Vector Displacement Map (VDM), and use it with Extrude to duplicate the feature.
It doesn’t require a flat or nice surface to grab the element; it automatically unwraps and flattens the edge. You can also export VDMs as EXR files to use in other applications.
Additionally, you can add external VDM alphas (3 channels, 32-bit, EXR/TIFF) into the Alphas panel and use them in the Surface Extrude.

Pick the Vector Displacement Map from the raw surface and drop it into the Alphas panel or duplicate it over the surface.

Press RMB over any VDM alpha to save VD from Alphas panel and flip X/Y components if needed.