What you should know about textures standard when mod Rome2.

[Mr.Jox]

As you may know Rome2 has raw_data and working_data textures. Raw has at least 5 different textures and Working has at least 4.

- Raw are next:
1. name_diffuse.tga;
2. name_gloss.tga;
3. name_level.tga;
4. name_normal.tga;
5. name_specular.tga.

*name part of the texture's name can be anything you want.
*second part of the name should always contain those 'texture type tags' so convertor can understand what this texture is.

- Working texture types:
1. name_diffuse.dds;
2. name_gloss_map.dds;
3. name_normal.dds;
4. name_specular.dds;

*so let's see why here is 4 textures converted from raw instead of 5.
Gloss_map.dds is nothing more than gloss.tga and level.tga combined in one. Gloss.tga is put to red channel and level.tga is put to green channel.

What the difference between working and raw textures?
- using BOB converter provided by assembly kit we can convert 5 raw textures to working textures.
1. Diffuse. Here's nothing changes except BOB converts diffuse from .tga to .dds;
2. Gloss and Level. These two textures are greyscale-only textures which means you can't use any colors in this texture ecept black, white and their combination. Both textures combine in one Gloss_map.dds texture where gloss.tga is put to red channel and level.tga is put to green channel. In result in your gloss_map.dds texture you can see green, red, yellow and black shades of color.
3. Normal. BOB converts normal in next way: red channel it copies to alpha channel and then red channel fills with white color, green channel isn't changed(stay still), blue channel just get filled with black color. In result we get our blue normal.tga texture converted into orange normal.dds texture.
4. Specular. Same as diffuse.

How should those textures have look like? And what it does affect.
1. [.tga],[.dds]. Diffuse color. It's in which colors your model will be presented in game. For example, my diffuse texture red only, so ingame I will see my shield model painted in red.
2. [.tga]. Gloss. This texture is greyscale-only as said above. It needs no detailed corners or layers or smth else. Texture can have look just a couple of squares with different types of grey color with no texture/diffuse details. Just smooth. So as darker grey color in gloss than less surface light will affect in game and opposide as whiter grey color in gloss than more surface of model will be affected by ingame light. If you fill gloss with white only ingame your model will be shiny in any corner of model. If black color used then your model won't have any reflection/metal effect at all.
3. [.tga]. Level. This texture is greyscale-only, as well. This texture type allows you to set intensivity of the reflection/metalic/lighting effect of the model. As whiter your grey color than more shine and metalic effects it will have in game. Opposide as darker it is than less reflection effect. For example white will have very intensive metalic effect. Black won't shine at all. Also level texture should have all diffuse details shown within it as greyscale. This way metal texture will have more whitish grey color, leather will have mid-grey or less, wood and cloth more dark grey or even black. Full name of this texture is Specular level.
4. [.dds]. Gloss_map. Here's blue channel should always be black. Easy way to get it look property is to add gloss.tga as red channel and level.tga as green one. Another way you can take your diffuse and play with 'level' modificator/tool to get it looking green-red with property looking.
5. [.tga],[.dds]. Normal map. Rome2 normals use 'baking texture' technology. I won't go far describing what it is as you can find tutorials for your software in interter. Just type smth like "Texture baking in 3d max tutorial". It's not important to use texture baking way. You can do it with Nvidia plugin but before you use it you have to prepare your diffuse texture: almost everytime metal textures in rome2 smooth so you will have to make your diffuse metal tiles have look without metal pattern. Also there are no scratches from diffuse shown in normal map. If you want, for example, give your metal some dents the normal map is the right texture where you have to add it.
6. [.tga],[.dds]. Specular map. So specular map is more smoothen and sometimes lighter than diffuse one. In specular you draw how diffuse color will be changed when in game light(sun or torch, for example) will affect it. So if it's metal you can make it more sharpen with some more scrathes shown on it plus a bit color changed. Materials(cloth, wood) which have no specular effect in general have black color/dark grey when in diffuse they can have any color.

These textures were basic textures which are can't be missed when importing to the game. There are also exist additional texture types such as mask, decaldirtmask and others. I gonna expand this tutorial with aditional textures in future. The idea of additional texture is every faction has it's 3 colors. So when u use mask textures, diffuse texture color gets changed to faction's color and this way you get at least 3 more color variation for your textures. Also some decal textures let game engine knows where it can add dirt in time of battle etc.
Post in comments anything you know about textures and missed here and I'll add it to the OP.

[cal5582123]

what do you name ambiant occulsion maps? _ao or _ambiant_occlusion?