If you mean using bump maps for surface normals, then that has already been discussed to some extent here
http://www.ac3d.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=320.
You wont be able to see the result in real-time from within AC3D, but you can see the effects after you render using Pov-Ray.
Along with using image files to get the bump map effect, there is also other surface normal patterns and effects that you can use to get different results. Just look in the "Pov-Ray for newbies" guide in the Resources section toward the bottom. There is a listing of different effects that you can enter into the object's property box. One example, normal { bumps .4 scale 2 }.