textures nomenclature question

[Androol]

I wonder what the letters after the _ in the texture name means.

 

I'm prety sure _n is for normal but what are the other?

 

For exemple _msn, _sk and _s are used in cbbe body textures aparently.

 

Edit: aparently _msn is for normalmap. O_o

[Androol]

_d = diffuse (color) texture

_n = tangent space normal map, also called a "bump" map or a "height" map - gives the illusion of depth to a flat surface

_msn = model space normal map, used in Skyrim by anything that displays a skin texture - MSN maps are baked to the geometry of the mesh, making them invalid on different geometry - this is why (one of the reasons, at least) bodies with absurd proportions look so bad - because they are using invalid normal maps

_s = specular map, a reflection map - on skin, this is typically due to moisture; on a sword or armor, it is due to a reflective surface like polished steel

_sk = subsurface map, shows the subdermal saturation of skin - skin is not opaque, it is translucent, so this adds color and details to skin so it looks more real (this is why mods that replace _sk textures with 64x64 black or pink textures make skin look like plastic)

_m = environment mask, not used on bodies - reflects a cubemap texture (found in \textures\cubemaps) to give the illusion of reflecting the surrounding environment

 

Thx, this will be most usefull.

 

When you say _n is for tangent normal map also caled bump map or heignt map, do you mean it's a shad of grey map ot a color map?

 

Because in blender and most 3d software, bump map simulate height by a shade of grey texture when tangent normal map is a rgb texture ( mainly blue in most case), when height map can refere to bump map, normal map or diplacement map if I remember well.

 

I have a doubt on anderstanding this one.

 

Not totaly sure I anderstand the_ msn one either since I never used any not tangent normal map. I think I can figure it out as all the software I used had tangent as default but blender actualy has an option not to use tangent when baking normal map, I guess model space is in the other options. so I probably got the idea.

[Androol]

Thx for the complementary information.

[Androol]

I read somewhere _e is for cubemap ( used for reflection) and _G for glow ( emissive map)

 

the difference between no _[Letter]  and _d eludes me. Aren't they both diffuse?