The surface renderer allow to display triangulated geometries (so anything with a surface).
                      It contain every component you are used to :
                      -Diffuse : Emitted light from the object
                      -Specular : Add this reflection effect. This can be combined with emitted specular from 
                    Light
                    Illuminate 3D renderers
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                    .
                      -Bump : Displace object normals with a black and white map to generate false 3d with 
                    Light
                    Illuminate 3D renderers
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                    .
                      -Normal : Use a rgb map to displace object normals (much effective than bump). Use 
                    Light
                    Illuminate 3D renderers
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                     angle between object and camera to generate false 3D.
                      -Env-map : Use a spherical or Cylindrical map to fake reflections and refractions
                      -Vertex color info : Debug your object normals issues
                      -Alpha : In the title. Better use 
                    3D Mask
                    3D masks enable selecting 3D vertices based on their different attributes such as position, color and texture coordinate.
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                     to do this effect
                      -Checkerboard : A 3D checkerboard