I have been looking for that shader that 'everyone' seems to be using that just make objects look so good. Finally I do think I have found it.
Example of a torus knot without any bump map applied

The same with a noise bump map

So whats so special with this algorithm. For one it looks very good. It's also not too complicated but more specifically it doesn't need any tangents to work. The noise applied in my example is just a real time noise height field generated in the shader. This can of course be any texture or function something that is incredibly useful.
The shader and example program with source can be found on
mikkelsen's blog