I may not be a expert at textures. Some claim I am good at it, but self-taught.Some advice for creators:
Do not use stuff on Google, find FREE stocks to use. ALWAYS credit
Do not save in the wrong format, the DDS format is important. I will add a description exactly what is what.
Always make a texture in format 4K, shrink it rather then expand a small texture.
Please do not use “Replace color” function, it looks ugly, instead make the texture black and white and make a new layer above original, use overlay function or dark as layer option, this will look better. ( My opinion)
Do not ask for help without trying to find the answer yourself , Youtube and Google host vast websites with explanations how to do something. Worst place to ask from my experience is Nexus . I got more help from groups on Facebook funny enough.
Always, ALWAYS be open to criticism! It helps you improve. Some Nexus creators.. (names not mentioned) .
ABOUT DDS
Some more acurate descriptions of the different formats: _ DXT1 RGB: generaly used for diffuse texture, low quality. _ DXT1 ARGB: The same as DXT1rgb but with alpha layer. Good for simple alpha mask without gradiant. _ DTX3: it's a RGB + alpha layer compression but better quality than DXT1(RGB layer have the same quality as DXT5 I think but alpha is not very good). _ DTX5: The best quality compression with alpha too. Can be used for good quality texture with complex alpha mask like for leaves. The alpha layer can also be used for specular texture. _ 8.8.8.8(or A8R8G8B8): uncrompressed format with alpha. Crytek use it for terrain layer textures with nothing on the alpha layer. Used for bumpnormal map too, however there are bumpnormal maps using 3Dc compression. More explain about 3Dc are welcome. What I see is the most bumpnormal texture are 3Dc in Crysis and a lot of models have two normalmaps, one in 3Dc and a second twice smaller than the first and in 8.8.8.8. In all case, Bumpnormal maps must have the suffix "_ddn" at the end of there name (ex: "testbump_ddn.dds"). The small bumpmap on 8.8.8.8 compression have the "_ddndif" suffix.
SOFTWARES FOR TEXTURE CREATION :
PAINT.NET
Photoshop
Gimp
SOFTWARES FOR NORMAL MAPS:
NJOB
CRAZYBUMPS
PHOTOSHOP
NORMAL MAP ONLINE
SHADERMAP
I am always open to help, so do not be afraid to ask.
