Game Developer tinybugbot, whose Houdini stuff we frequently feature on 80 Level, shared an example of how to use a mask with an SDF stored in a VDB to deform geometry. While they prefer Wrangle nodes, you can also experiment with OpenCL, which operates at a lower level than VEX and can offer better performance depending on your hardware and use case.
tinybugbot has also previously shared tips on creating displacement effects and designing mechanical surface textures:
