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# createNormalsIfAbsent

An option for automatically generating surface normals if they are absent when loading geometry.

```
static let createNormalsIfAbsent: SCNSceneSource.LoadingOption
```

## Discussion

The value for this key is an <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/Foundation/NSNumber> object containing a Boolean value. The default value is <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/Swift/false>.

To participate in lighting and shading, a geometry must include surface normal vectors in its vertex data. Some scene files may not contain such data. If you set this option’s value to <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/Swift/true>, SceneKit applies heuristics to generate surface normal data for each geometry it loads from the scene source if such data is absent.

---

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