The point you are missing is that this question isn't about how CC3+ works, but rather about the Displace effect, which uses a normal map to generate the distortion. This doesn't have anything at all to do with vector vs raster or vector artwork. Your understanding is fine enough when it comes to these concepts, you have just missed the context of this discussion.

A normal map uses color values to encode mathematical vectors as pixels, and these vectors aren't visible drawings like a vector line or polygon, but rather a mathematical vector that describes a direction in space. These vectors are expressed using 3 numbers, representing X, Y and Z directions. This is basically just maths encoded in an image form, and is used to calculate the final transform, for example to make the lovely ripples in Sue's Marine Dungeon maps.

@JulianDracos you are mixing vector drawing entities here with mathematical vectors. A normal map is just a grid of (mathematical) vector represented as as an image. Each pixel represents a single vector, where the three directions are encoded as the red, blue and green channel in the pixel respectively. Thus, when a normal map is used with the distort effect, each vector tells which direction to move the pixel at that position in the rendered map.

This is also very similar to how roof shading is done with CD3 buildings.

@roflo1 I don't know exactly how it is done internally, but I assume it calculated as a 3D-space and then projected down to the 2D plane, and the projection used for the actual distort.

The displacement is based on a normal map. A normal map is basically a grid of vectors encoded using RGB values so you can store it as an image. The vector encoded in each pixel basically determines the direction for the displacement effect at that point.

The texture size tells CC3+ how to scale the texture you pick. If you want a single displacement image to cover the entirety of your map, set the effects units to map units, and the texture size to a value equal to the width (or height) of your map. If the value is lower than your map size, the displacement image will tile (which is usually the way you would use it).

The displacement amount is basically the strength of the effect, i.e how much the pixels should be displaced. May need som experimenting to get this right, and don't be afraid of going to pretty large values.

It is a template file, so it won't show in the CC3+ open dialog unless you change the file type filter to show templates instead of maps. You would normally using the new map wizard (choose a pre-defined template) to create a map from it though, not opening it directly

The file Ralf referred to above is still located in the same location for CC3+, just look in the CC3+ data directory and follow the path. This is a Cosmographer supplied filed though, so you need to have Cos3 installed, there isn't one available for "plain" CC3+.