On the subject of textures

[Mystified Explorer]

Personally I agree that finding textures can be a very frustrating thing sometimes, especially for people like me who don't have money or photoshop. I did stumble on the free Genetica Viewer which has been talked about mind. I have to say though that my favourite aspect of age building is simply watching the concept of my age come to life as I work

I'm keen to see how the texture exchange server idea turns out - it'd be great to have a place to share textures

[Marcello]

I strongly support making our own textures. There are some great appz that produce amazing procedural textures that have a very high quality. I used some of those for my RAD2 Shell as a starting point after which I tweaked them. I invested in FilterForge and also have MapZone (free app) installed. The later I haven't used yet.

But even without such appz amazing things can be done. There are some great books, like the one by Luke Ahearn. I posted about this book before.

The main reason for making your own textures is to make them a match. Personally I think that besides great models and top notch UV mapping the art of making a cool age is in making sure all textures fit well together. One being out of line in color, contrast, etc. and it shows. Cyan is a master at combining just the right textures. Many aren't fotorealistic at all but sometimes even have a cartoonlike quality to them. In Gira for instance.

[Trylon]

especially for people like me who don't have money or photoshop.

That's no excuse
Gimp is everything as good as Photoshop, and compleately free!

[Marcello]

Mapzone is free too. Learning curve might be steep, but I believe it's worth it (still have to take the leap myself )