I am having a go at some cc for my next mod.
First up is some floors to compliment RJS adobe interiors.
I have tried a sandy floor with a tiled/mosaic design but it shines in the tool set as you can see.
It has a normal map and texture created using paint.net, that bit went well. How can I flatten the shine off this. Does it come from the normal map?
PJ
Yes, it comes from the normal map. I see this happen when the normal map is blank. Make another normal map (via the GIMP plugin for instance).
to be specific the specular map is stored in the alpha channel of the normal map.
You don't need to touch any of the RGB channels of the normal map. Just make the alpha channel darker. If there is no alpha channel, it interprets it as white (which equals 100% specular).
Thanks for the responses guys. I need to do more reading it seems.
I understand that the specular map lies within the Alpha channel of the normal map but I don't yet know how to isolate and manipulate it. I read one post on the internet that the alpha channel was a fancy way of saying opacity of the RBG channels so I reduced the opacity of the image in paint and the below happened.
I think I have messed it somewhere else because its relationship to the light source is cranky. Its not so shiny anymore but i am not convinced it has much of a normal map either.
Pj
The shine's my fault--I wasn't aware of the normal map alpha channel role.
In Gimp I do this when I want to apply an alpha transparency percentage to the entire image:
Haven't used paint.net much. Perhaps there's a tutorial?
Looks nice, your floor pattern.
You can also make one part shiny, another part dull by making a copy of your normal, editing sections, and copying between the two as needed.
Glowing stuff uses a separate texture for the glowy bits. The standard suffix for the glowy texture is _si (Self Illumination). It's why you can't change the glow color, the toolset doesn't allow you to tint the glow map.
I read one post on the internet that the alpha channel was a fancy way of saying opacity of the RBG channels so I reduced the opacity of the image in paint and the below happened.
Do not listen to whoever said that. There is a red channel, a green channel, and a blue channel in a 24-bit image. Each channel contains 8 bits, which equals 256 levels of strength in each channel. That is an RGB image. When you have a 4th channel, it is called an RGBA image, where A stands for "alpha", and it is another, separate, 8-bit channel of 256 levels of grey, called the alpha channel. It has nothing to do with the R, G, or B channels.
Your image looks less shiny now because you darkened the whole thing. That doesn't reduce the specularity, but it does reduce the colour blowout caused by the specularity. I used that in some of the Witcher placeables by adding grey in the toolset via the tint map as a quick and dirty solution.
You can make some parts shiny, some parts dull by simply painting darker areas on the alpha channel to make them less shiny, or painting lighter areas on it to make them shinier.
I think I can see what the person was probably meaning about the opacity of the RGB channels. The thing is, alpha channels don't do anything by themselves. It depends on the program you're using what they do with them. It also matters which maps you're talking about. In many applications, alpha is only used for transparency, and so a white alpha channel would mean 100% opaque, and a black alpha channel would mean 100% transparent. In NWN2, the alpha channel of the diffuse map handles transparency, but not the alpha channel of the normal map, which handles specular strength. The alpha channel of the tint map controls tint strength. Also, keep in mind that NWN2 doesn't use the diffuse alpha channel as an 8-bit image. It reduces it to 1-bit, meaning it ignores all shades of grey and deals strictly in black and white (meaning no antialiased transparencies on an object).
Thanks for that.
I need to up my understanding of the words being used 
That said I swapped to gimp during my silence. It is easier because I can see the alpha channel now. I have the .dds and normal map plug ins so i am going to have one more try before lights out.
PJ
The shine's my fault--I wasn't aware of the normal map alpha channel role.
Not at all this is a different model.
PJ
[EDIT] Tonight I have learned that I have a lot to learn ...
I create all my alpha channels in an old copy of Corel Photopaint dating back to the last century (late 90s I think). If I open up a TGA with an alpha channel, it appears as a selection mask on the image. I can save that selection mask as a grey-scale image, allowing me to load it as a separate image and manually touch it up (just call me the digital Rolf Harris). Then when I'm ready to add it back as an alpha channel, I just load that modified grey-scale image as a selection mask over the diffuse or normal texture image, and save the lot as a TGA. The selection mask gets coverted back into an alpha channel.
what the * is an alpha channel?
what the * is an alpha channel?
http://forum.bioware.../#entry17107716
transparency
Not always, and definitely not in the normal map, which is what we're talking about.
what the * is an alpha channel?
A 32 bit wide integer can be used for a single color pixel that provides 8 bits each (0-255) for red, green, and blue channels, leaving 8 bits left over. The last are usually used for the 'alpha' channel. That's what gives you 8-bit transparency on several image formats, such as PNG.
I had no idea about an normal map's alpha channel effecting specularity. FWIW, I've added spec maps to my models using the "gloss" slot in 3ds and it works IG for some really nice effects. I suppose adding it the the normal's alpha would give the same effect.
Thanks for the responses. Had the outlaws down for a few days and lost tool set time.
I am still plodding on with this and it is a buggerance to be sure. RJS's method appears it will work once I can work out how to modify just the mask channel.
Right now I am getting mixed results.
PJ
Sorted it so it seems,
I added a black mask (full transparency) and I got these results. I will play with different specular maps in time but for now I have the first four floors for my adobe buildings
PJ
Wouldn't a completely black alpha channel on a normal map prevent any of the bump mapping from getting though? That would seem to defeat the purpose of having a normal map entirely.
Instead of pure black, you might want to try a really really dark grey. At least then you'll get some slight depressions between the mozaic tiles.
No, the alpha channel of the normal map doesn't control the strength of the normal map. There's no need for such a control, since you would presumably build your normal map to the strength you actually want it. It controls the strength of the specularity. The illusion of bumps and ridges will not be affected by a black alpha channel in a normal map. It will simply be 100% unshiny.
You might want to experiment with dark noise patterns for those tiles, or even use a darkened greyscale of the diffuse map as a quick and dirty way of making some tiles slightly shinier than others. As long as it's all very dark, you shouldn't get that bright blowout.
You are right Tchos, of course. 
I'd still be avoiding zero percent specularity though, as I'd expect slightly more for the polished mozaic tiles than the grout in between them. A gamma-reduced version of the height map might do the trick in this case.
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