In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping, or "Dot3 bump mapping", is a technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents - an implementation of Bump mapping. It is used to add details without using more polygons. A common use of this technique is to greatly enhance the appearance and details of a low polygon model by generating a normal map from a high polygon model or height map.
Normal maps are commonly stored as regular RGB images where the RGB components corresponds to the X, Y, and Z coordinates, respectively, of the surface normal.
Read more about Normal Mapping: History, How It Works, Calculating Tangent Space, Normal Mapping in Video Games
Famous quotes containing the word normal:
“Normality highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal. Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.”
—R.D. (Ronald David)