What are normals maps? Why use them?
Normals are a handy way of giving a texture to an object, without using any polygons. Which I extremely useful in games.
As to quote Rob Redman the editor from 3D world's technical
“The PS3 almost definitely couldn't
handle [million-poly models], especially not while running lights, normal
mapping, anti-aliasing and the geometry for other characters and
environments.”
A game couldn't run all of those polygons, if the game artists use nothing but polygons for the texture. Normal maps are the best way to minimize the poly count and to still get the texture that is required.
Bump maps use to used in the games industry, however not so much anymore as they have been replaced by normal maps, as they are far more effective than bump maps.
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