How to edit _n textures

[bigblackguy]

I know how to edit regular textures but I don't know how to edit the _n textures. And I'm using adobe photoshop CS5 extended, but I also have paint.net. There is a tool called normal maps for paint.net that allows you to make your own _n texture based on a regular texture, but I have no idea how to use it. And to make sure, the _n texture is the texture that looks like its dimmed blue when viewed in adobe or any program that can open the textures. I think the _n textures tell the game the dimension of the object.

[GrindedStone]

I'm so scared of big black guys, OMG, no wait, it's just that I'm scared of big guys in general, OMG a big guy!

 

You don't typically edit a normal map. Just edit the defuse texture then use it to create a new normal. You could totally hand paint normals which would be the highest quality. The problem is that it would take you a couple of weeks. You can set up a defuse you know you are going to create a normal map out of. Like painting areas white, grey, or black depending on how much you want them to move, maybe you want to reduce the noise or something as well.

 

Photoshop has a Nvidia toolset an .dds plug in. GIMP will create normal maps but like photoshop it requires a .dds an normal map plug in to do so. I only use GIMP to create normals for anything that is shiny, gloss, semi gloss, metatic specular, and also often adjusting the gloss from shiny to 100% matte or flat. I'm guessing photoshop an GIMP are similar in the quality of the map, so it's more about which program can do it faster for the artist.

 

There are tools like Crazybump which will create a normal map so fast it will make your head spin. It's super easy to use an does a couple of other things. The maps are pretty crazy hence the name. Most of the time I use it because I'm too lazy now to use anything else. It's very good quality estimated normals. You could kick some dirt around in the 3D art world an dig up some more advanced tools like this if you like.

 

You can also bake normals with 3D editors using a very high detail version of the mesh then lighting you set up in the editor. Then you can put the normal on a low detail mesh an it looks just like the high detail mesh only without the higher performance requirements needed to run it. That's basicly what the pro's do. While you would get insane detail doing this, the method is mostly to lower the performance requirements. The normals main job.