Vengance: When you are in F3 select Render Options. If there is no checkbox for "No Normal Map" and "No Height Map" then you are using a version of the exe that may or may not have support.
I only have those checkboxes when running the 3.6.10 build included in Turey's installer, it's just not there with _any_ of the robinson builds, so it's hard to tell if it's simply missing in the render options or just not complete in it's presence in the exe. Taylor would have to answer that, methinks, but he is currently busy and it will all probably be a moot point by the time a 3.6.10 exe becomes official anyway.
Ships which SHOULD have a normal map no matter what (and obviously so) are the Uly, Myrmidon and Hatshepsut that I can recall off the top of my head.
Also, the robinson builds don't recognize -alpha_env either. So again, I'd recommend sticking with the Turey Installer inluded 3_6_10_20071007T.exe or the 3_6_10_20071028T.exe.
On a MediaVP related note, the shine maps on the missles seem a touch.....excessive. I'm actually starting to generally dislike the shine maps in general (even though a lot of them have gotten fixed, fo which I'm sure many will thank you for), I've just taken to completely removing them.
**EDIT: Fixed the capital2s-01.pof from these VP's rather than using a previously fixed version.
capital2s-01.7z **Do a right-click "Save As".
MD5: 826E4824AD1C98B0B2266BE7C5C3886B
Simply unzip into the mediavps data\models\capital2s-01.pof to over-ride.
Don't forget to go into data\cache\ and delete any capital2s-01 files from there before re-launching SCP.