Quote - In some programs normal maps can be seen in real time, which is fairly impressive for a quick simulation of the high poly look. In Poser 8 you can render a normal map, but you can't see it in the preview. Since you could render a bump map or even a displacement map, I'm wondering if there is any good reason to use a normal map in Poser 8?

 

Normalmaps are used with low-poly objects to save memory and rendertime. Using a normalmap is not the same as using a bumap. See the blender documentation for a detailed description with samples.

In Poser normalmaps may be used with animations. Typically (for Poser users) not for the main characters but for highly detailed backgrounds and other props.

For animations rendertime per frame is very important. Using "flat geometries" with normalmaps as proxies insteed of highly detailed meshes can save a lot of rendertime.

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