SOFTIMAGE|3D had a Effect > GC_Displace command (written with the C++ GDK) that displaced the vertices of a polygon mesh object based on an applied texture map. Using GC_Displace, you could “sculpt a terrain, a craggy moon surface, or even a face.”

I came across a screenshot of GC_Displace the other day, so for fun I re-created the basic effect in ICE: