If I read that correctly, only TMN (and in TMU only the Stadium environment) supports normal mapping?Acegikmo wrote:No, TMO and TMS environment textures will stay the same as it is now.
Since the TMU engine supports specular and normal mapping, it should be possible to add those to the other environments... I sort of hoped Nadeo would do that.
What about specular mapping, I'm pretty sure I remember seeing the road in TMO (don't think it was in the actual original first version of TM) reflect in some places (due to wear from car tyres I suppose) when viewed from the right angle.
Truthfully I'm not sure, because my current, aging system isn't really all that good at supporting eye candy anymore.

It would be perfect if this could be cleared up in the original post, making this tutorial a bit more complete.
Also, the specularity map is based on the diffuse map, but it isn't quite clear how that works.
Maybe it could be added that this takes advantage of the fact that the darker places on the diffuse map correspond with the less reflective places, the lighter with the more reflective places.
The alpha layer then only changes the overall strength of the effect.
At least, if I got that all right, this won't work with every kind of texture.
If I wanted to create... say a marble chessboard kind of road, the black and white tiles would be equally shiny, only the grooves between tiles would be more matte.
Since these are simple geometric shapes, it's relatively easy to create a convincing specular map by hand.
Maybe this could be added as a second example?
Finally, perhaps it's nice to point to Wikipedia (or other) articles about the different shaders and things for an in-depth explanation for those curious.
Oh, and I love the tutorial; don't get me wrong!
