Texture Maps Basics
Texture Map Basics
City of Heroes uses the .texture filetype. You’ll need to save your file out as a .tga (targa) in order for gettex to properly convert the file to what you need. The Targa file type is good because it’s able to utilize an alpha map which can give your textures different kinds of properties depending on what you do to it. Textures will need to be saved out with specific letters at the end of the name for the game to be able to read them. Remember to always save your targa as 32 bit if you are using an alpha map.
There are two basic textures. _B, and _CM
Diffuse/Albedo (_B)
The diffuse texture is the main texture. All these texture files should end in _B to signify that that the texture is the Base texture. The alpha of the _B texture is what determines what parts of the costume can be color changed in game or not. Normally the AO (Ambient Occlusion) of the texture can serve perfectly fine as the base. 100% black on the alpha is fully colorable. 100% white on the alpha cannot be colored. Anything in between is semi-colorable which can produce interesting results. This can be used for certain parts of the costume that you wish to remain a specific color by design, such as an emblem. [Show examples of diffuse maps]
Colormap (_CM)
The color map is what determines what part of the costume is color 1 and color 2. All textures should end in _CM to signify that that texture is a color map. White is color 1 Black is color 2 The alpha of the _CM is transparency. 100% white is fully opaque 100% black is fully transparent Anything in between gives you varying degrees of transparency. This can be used for things like glasses, or ghostly costumes.
Tricks
Tricks are an extension to the textures CoH can use that was introduced later in the game’s life. They are set up on a text document and reference the texture files. The tricks you’ll most often use are Base1, DualColor1, and BumpMap1. Tricks will be explained later in the document. Base1 is simply the diffuse _B. DualColor1 is the Color Map _CM Bumpmap1 is the normal map, or bump map if you want to go old school, _NM
Bumpmap (_NM)
Normal maps need to have the Y / Green channel flipped/Inverted Normal maps give the illusion of depth where there is none. It alters the lighting on the texture to pretend that there are dents, blemishes, or bolts where in reality those things aren’t really on the model. It’s used to save time and file size by creating more detail without jacking up the poly count by hundreds or thousands of polygons. The alpha on the _NM is the specular. The specular is used to determine how shiny something is on the texture. Most engines use the metallic workflow, and older games tend to use the specular workflow. 100% white on the specular is very shiny and reflective. 100% black is matte, and not reflective.