This kind of mapping hit mainstream a few years ago. Look at the ground in most games, it's not actually 3D but does a damn good appoximation.

In some games you'll see real subdivision surfaces which are even more awesome but somewhat expensive.

I remember being super excited when these features were making their way from software rendering to GPU years back. I would guesstimate a very large fraction of the perceived increase in game graphics have come from these techniques in recent years.