Bel's Normal Map Killer - get rid of annoying normal and bumpiness maps!

Just a simple drag-drop-and-forget script to get rid of rogue bumpiness and normal maps. It removes heritage shininess too (but not modern specular maps).

Why do I want to use this?

Bump maps and normals maps are ways to fake extra details on a surface by altering the light reflection across it. It can be a great way to add life and realism to an object and is used a lot in computer games and even sometimes for background details in professional film making.

They're a bit trickier to use in virtual realities like Second Life though. The problem is that they depend very much on the light. Light settings are strictly controlled in games and on film sets of course - no problems there - but in Second Life they may change dramatically depending on the windlight, what graphics settings you have set your preferences to and even on the rotation of the object.

Normal maps only really work with graphics set to High (that is with ALM on and shadows off). In the lower settings they're simply switched on and in ultra high graphics (with shadows on), they are usually just drowned by other effects.
Bumpiness maps work with graphics set to Mid or High but they can look dramatically different with those two settings.
(If you have customized your graphics prefs, the three parameters that matter here are "Bump mapping and shiny", "Advanced Lighting Model" (or ALM as it's usually called) and Shadows. Bumpiness map require Bump mapping and shiny to be switched on (obiously) and Shadows to be off and how they look depends on whether ALM is on or off. Normal maps require ALM to be on and Shadows to be off.)

Then there is windlight. Way too many variables to list them all here but a bumpiness or normal map that looks great in midday sun setting tend to be ridiculously exaggerated with the lower sun positions (earlier and later in the SL day) and one that looks great at sunrise and sunset is hardly visible at all at noon.

The effect of bumpiness and normal maps even depends on the object's rotation. Rotate it to face in a different direction and it may look dramatically different!

Bumpiness and normal maps can be very effective when they work but they often fail and then it's good to have a way to switch them off. And that's exactly what this script is supposed to do.

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Copyrights and permissions

Bel's Normal Map Killer is a copyable and transferable freebie from Bel's Scripts, the script department of the OPQ group. You have permission to:
+ Use the script any way you like for your own items within Second Life
+ Include it as part of any build you sell or give away as long as it is *either* copyable or modifiable, not both
+ Give the script away to anybody within Second Life as long as you
- don't charge any money of any kind for it
- Include the *whole package - the script itself, this notecard and the attached landmark to OPQ's main store at Coniston.

You do *not* have permission to:
- Transfer or use the script outside Second Life
- Modify the script in any way.