# Doc: BufferGeometry refers to "face normals"

**URL:** <https://discourse.threejs.org/t/doc-buffergeometry-refers-to-face-normals/36282>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** documentation, geometry\
**Created:** [March 23, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/doc-buffergeometry-refers-to-face-normals/36282 "2022-03-23T15:05:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dcromley](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.threejs.org/dcromley/32/9997_2.png) [@dcromley](https://discourse.threejs.org/u/dcromley)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/doc-buffergeometry-refers-to-face-normals/36282/1 "2022-03-23T15:05:58Z")

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The page  
[https://threejs.org/docs/#api/en/core/BufferGeometry.computeVertexNormals](https://threejs.org/docs/#api/en/core/BufferGeometry.computeVertexNormals)  
has,  
“.computeVertexNormals () : undefined – Computes vertex normals by averaging face normals.”  
which, I’m quite sure, is outdated or otherwise invalid.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vielzutun.ch](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.threejs.org/vielzutun.ch/32/21366_2.png) [@vielzutun.ch](https://discourse.threejs.org/u/vielzutun.ch)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2022, 3:23pm UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/doc-buffergeometry-refers-to-face-normals/36282/2 "2022-03-23T15:23:14Z")

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> [@dcromley](#):
>
> I’m quite sure, is outdated or otherwise invalid.

What makes you think so?  
From my understanding of the source, this applies to **indexed** geometries, where vertices maybe shared between two or more adjacent faces. In that case, a vertex normal is computed by averaging the face normals of the contributing faces.  
For **non-indexed** elements (unconnected triangle soup), each vertex of an unconnected triangle gets assigned the face normal of that triangle.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dcromley](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.threejs.org/dcromley/32/9997_2.png) [@dcromley](https://discourse.threejs.org/u/dcromley)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/doc-buffergeometry-refers-to-face-normals/36282/3 "2022-03-23T16:13:04Z")

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Got it. I was thinking of the old, eliminated .computeFaceNormals().