Surface Normals
A surface normal (or just normal) is a vector that points perpendicular to a surface at a given point. Consider a table, as shown in the following figure.
A flat surface like a table will have the same normal at every point on its surface, as shown by the vectors labeled N. If the table is level, the normals will be the same as “up,” but even if we tilt the table, they’ll still be perpendicular to the table’s surface, like the following figure shows.
Things get a little trickier when we start talking about nonplanar surfaces (those ...
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