I don’t qualify as and expert but I’ve edited a ton of them and made my fair share (and made some really bad ones too). It all depends on what you are trying to achieve. You must have PS and at least one of the following, Crazybump or Ndo2 (there is a old one I picked up somewhere called normalmaperATI and the tga to dot3 option). There are also plugins for PS or gimp. You will have to learn to use them.There are tons of texture packs where people just run the base texture or even final texture through the filters and the normal maps looks like crap very grainy. Most of the programs run on value with light/white transferring to up and darker/black to down when run through the plugins/program, Biggest mistake people make is running a picture or texture through a filter with highlights and shadows that are really strong. Play with the contrast and exposure before running the texture. Also edit out all shadows and highlights from light sources on the picture. This is usually why photos of stainless steel look terrible. You will have to play with the value sliders to get a good image because it all depends on the effect you are trying to get. I end up editing the normal maps based on the viewers provided with CB and ndo. I also use Toolbag 1 and 2 for real time looks a what I just worked on.
Thanks for the reply… I did not understand all the programs and plug ins but I will have to look into it.
I am improving on texture editing, it’s not my forte “art” but I am trying and I realize I screwed up the with the map tint in the vmt crypt was right on that but I was exhausted at the time and forgot to come back on these none the less I will try and update this at some point as I am making some new ones for WGH extended and they will be much better and I’ll probably update this pack with them when I have re-done them proper.