Create an armor with Blender?

[ResolveThatChord]

Yes, and it's compulsory for you to have a normal map, or it won't work properly in-game. Forgetting one in Oblivion it resulted in an invisible mesh, I haven't yet seen what it does in Skyrim.

 

Another important thing is that the normal map contains the specular map in its alpha channel, which controls the shininess of each pixel. If you don't give it a proper spec map, it can look really shiny all over like plastic. Spec maps can really make an amazing difference. To get one, make a greyscale image of your diffuse texture, and then lighten and darken areas depending on how shiny you want them. Then turn on the layer mask for your normal map, and copy the spec map you made into the alpha channel of the normal map. When you want to export to .dds, flatten the image, or apply the layer mask, then save as .dds, choosing DXT5 compression.

 

Here's a reference sheet on texture types and what they do. For some reason spec maps aren't on there.

[RageAgainstTheMachine]

_n= Normal map (dictates how light affects the object,)

 

_g= Glow map (a black and white version of the texture, with the white parts denoting the glowing areas.)

 

Yeah but how I can make those textures with mine?

[ResolveThatChord]

Ah. Well, if you want glowing parts, it's pretty simple. The glow map is just a greyscale image that determines much the diffuse texture will glow. A black pixel in the _g map will not affect the corresponding pixel in the diffuse map. A white pixel in the glow map will cause the corresponding pixel to be completely unaffected by shadows, giving it the appearance of glowing. The shades of grey cover everything between these two extremes.

 

Normal maps are somewhat more complex. Google it to find out what it does; I don't think I could explain it eloquently. The bottom line is that normal maps are textures that allow you to have complex, fine-detail geometry without having lots of polygons. This is achieved by manipulating shadows and highlights on the texture to give the illusion of depth.

There are two ways to generate normal maps. The first, and most important, is to bake one in Blender from a high-poly, high detail version of your model. Here's a good tutorial explaining how, and what exactly a normal map is.

This method is perfect for low frequency detail, like folds in cloth, buttons on clothes, engravings and embossings.

 

The other method is to generate one from a texture. It'll use the difference in brightness between adjacent pixels to determine the slope made by the normal map. It's very important for high-frequency detail, like the rough surface of rocks, the weave of fabric, and scrathes. With photoshop, use the Nvidia normal map filter tool, which is free to download.

 

 

Also remember that the _n.dds texture has the specular map in its alpha channel.