Weighted Normals Updated May 2026

To fake smoothness, we use vertex normals —averaging the normals of all the polygons that meet at a single corner. This is the classic "smooth shade" button. It works wonderfully for a sphere. But for a cylinder? You get a strange, pinched artifact at the top and bottom. For a game character’s hard-edged armor? The edges look like melted plastic.

Why? Because the standard average treats every polygon equally. A tiny sliver of a triangle has the same voting power as a large, sweeping quad. It’s democratic, but it’s wrong. weighted normals

In the end, weighted normals teach us a profound lesson about computer graphics: And a well-weighted lie is indistinguishable from the truth. To fake smoothness, we use vertex normals —averaging

In the world of real-time rendering, a lie well told is better than a clumsy truth. And no lie is more elegant, or more misunderstood, than the weighted normal. But for a cylinder

Enter .

Imagine you’re tasked with lighting a low-polygon game asset—say, a crate, a boulder, or a character’s shoulder. The geometry is faceted, sharp, and efficient. But when a light hits it, the truth of those flat triangles screams back at you. You see every edge. The object looks like a cut gemstone, not a smooth, organic form. The problem isn't the geometry. The problem is how you’re pretending the surface curves.