Abstract: A method for generating light values for a set of vertices is disclosed. A set of vertices describing a geometric object is received. Each vertex has a coordinate and is associated with one or more vectors for evaluating a light value. Then, a vertex is selected from the set of vertices for computing a light value at the selected vertex. The light value at the selected vertex is associated with a light source having a coordinate. A selected vector for the selected vertex is then scaled by an inverse magnitude value of a corresponding vector that is associated with a neighboring vertex. The selected vector is scaled to generate an approximately normalized vector. The light value is then evaluated at the selected vertex using the approximately normalized vector such that an accurate normalized vector need not be computed for the selected vertex.