   Bump mapping issue?
  I have seen in oblivion the follwoing thing:On the dwarvish axe there are bump map patterns, when you look straight on the axe side, you can see the bump map well. But the more you look with an angle to the side of the axe, the bump map effect dissappear until it dissappear completly while looking about 60 degrees from the axe's normal.Is that common to all 3D engines and there is nothing to do about it? or is it only in oblivion?Thanks in advance.   
  Bump maps are applied to planar surfaces usualy (e.g., when you see bump-mapped water, the water itself is just a plane, so you can see the same effect as with the axe when you look at water from an extreme angle). What you're noticing is normal and not Oblivion-exclusive.   