Welcome to "How to Texturama" - Let's start with Filenaming and Pixel Sizes

Over the years, we have developed a system that works with the majority of our texture images. "_SQ" in the name indicates whether the image is square or a power of two. For textures we have included "D" for Decal (or non-tileable), and for tileable maps we have added "V" for those that tile vertically, "H" for horizontal tiling, "T" for fully tileable in both directions, and in rare occasions we have "MT" for mirror-tile. Some building facades work well with mirror-tile option for each face of your cubic geometry.

Image Pixel Sizes

In the game industry, usually those numbers are 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 etc. In the early years of capturing these photographs, sometimes the resolution fell in between these figures. For these lower resolution versions, we decided to keep at the mid-range resolutions, so that you, the artist, can decide whether to upscale or downscale the image size, depending on the effectiveness of current and future AI sharpening tools. For our support PBR maps, we will scale them up to the nearest power of two.

Architecture with non-square perimeters have paths embedded in the JPEG

For any Architectural facades that have non-square perimeters (such as sloped roofs or ornate details at the perimeter). PNGs of this nature will have alpha channels which may be converted to paths in Photoshop. JPEGS of this nature will have paths embedded. Just load up into photoshop, then export the paths to illustrator files. Many 3D packages have the ability to import AI line art, so load them in, then extrude or turn to flat polygons. Then the textures may be applied.

Architecture or other textures with reflection maps

See "_REF" extensions in filename. Simply use these maps as reflection masks in your 3D package. Adjust the strength to change how reflective the windows are. You may consider inverting this map and using as a transparency map if you have some interior texture images you want to use.

Can't Wait for Normal or Bump Maps?

In the time being, until we release our PBR support maps, go check out the free, yet powerful "Materialize" app from Bounding-Box Software or use Photoshop's relatively new Filters>3D>Normal Map or Bump map interactive tools. Sometimes it can be tricky to get accurate normal or displacement maps, so explore options by layering in geometry renders that use z-depth pass. Also grout can sometime use some quick line overlays to add sharpness or to keep consistent depth during displacement.