Max Smooth Angle Setting and Vertex Displace--a lesson Tweet

[itsallgoode9]

I've been working with a lot of converted CAD models and Vertex Displacements lately. At first I thought vertex displacement was broken due to HEAVY artifacts in tringles but I eventually found the setting of "Max Smooth Angle" was causing the problem. My question is....

..This setting isn't even mentioned in the documentation anywhere (that i found) and is in quite obscure location to even run across it accidentally. As well, it completely breaks vertex displacement with default settings in some instances. Is there a reason for its default setting? As well, is there a reason for its obscurity? Would this make more sense to be a material setting within the vertex displacement node?

I'm guessing that default setting of 91 works for organic models, but anything hard edged, with bad geo (aka ANY CAD model) it seems to completely break and there are zero clues as to why. I feel like the current implementation of this setting has scary protentional for MAJOR headaches for people who don't randomly know about it (like it did me.).

For others who are running into the issue, here's the location: