//it appears to me that when altering the
	//vertices buffer all that happens is 
	//the vertices alone are manipulated 
	//and not the normals because
	//when i tested your code it became
	//aparent to me that ent_fixnormals resets the vertices
	//back to their original states (which is kinda weird (bug)?)
	for(i=0; i<ent_status(test,0); i++)
		{
			vbuff0[i].y += random(10)-5;	
		}
	//but when manipulating the normals directly 
	//ent_fixnormals then fixes the altered normals
	for(i=0; i<ent_status(test,0); i++)
		{	
			vbuff0[i].nx += random(10)-5;	
		}