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# docs.GL

OpenGL 3
OpenGL 2

# glNormal

## Name

glNormal — set the current normal vector

## C Specification

`void glNormal3b(` | GLbyte | nx,
| GLbyte | ny,
| GLbyte | nz`)`;

`void glNormal3d(` | GLdouble | nx,
| GLdouble | ny,
| GLdouble | nz`)`;

`void glNormal3f(` | GLfloat | nx,
| GLfloat | ny,
| GLfloat | nz`)`;

`void glNormal3i(` | GLint | nx,
| GLint | ny,
| GLint | nz`)`;

`void glNormal3s(` | GLshort | nx,
| GLshort | ny,
| GLshort | nz`)`;

## Parameters

`nx`, `ny`, `nz`

  Specify the x, y, and z coordinates of the new current normal. The initial value of the current normal is the unit vector, (0, 0, 1).

## C Specification

`void glNormal3bv(` | const GLbyte * | v`)`;

`void glNormal3dv(` | const GLdouble * | v`)`;

`void glNormal3fv(` | const GLfloat * | v`)`;

`void glNormal3iv(` | const GLint * | v`)`;

`void glNormal3sv(` | const GLshort * | v`)`;

## Parameters

`v`

  Specifies a pointer to an array of three elements: the x, y, and z coordinates of the new current normal.

## Description

The current normal is set to the given coordinates whenever `glNormal` is issued. Byte, short, or integer arguments are converted to floating-point format with a linear mapping that maps the most positive representable integer value to 1.0 and the most negative representable integer value to -1.0 .

Normals specified with `glNormal` need not have unit length. If `GL_NORMALIZE` is enabled, then normals of any length specified with `glNormal` are normalized after transformation. If `GL_RESCALE_NORMAL` is enabled, normals are scaled by a scaling factor derived from the modelview matrix. `GL_RESCALE_NORMAL` requires that the originally specified normals were of unit length, and that the modelview matrix contain only uniform scales for proper results. To enable and disable normalization, call glEnable and glDisable with either `GL_NORMALIZE` or `GL_RESCALE_NORMAL`. Normalization is initially disabled.

## Notes

The current normal can be updated at any time. In particular, `glNormal` can be called between a call to glBegin and the corresponding call to glEnd.

## Associated Gets

glGet with argument `GL_CURRENT_NORMAL`

glIsEnabled with argument `GL_NORMALIZE`

glIsEnabled with argument `GL_RESCALE_NORMAL`

## See Also

glBegin, glColor, glIndex, glMultiTexCoord, glNormalPointer, glTexCoord, glVertex

## Copyright

Copyright © 1991-2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc. This document is licensed under the SGI Free Software B License. For details, see https://web.archive.org/web/20171022161616/http://oss.sgi.com/projects/FreeB/.

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