Note: Due to errors with the Photoshop VTF plugin, note these two things: Once you have used the Normalmap or Normal with Alpha preset, the Exporter will be “glued” to this preset and always saves in this format (especially with the flags “Normalmap” and “Trilinear”), regardless of how you set them until you re-state Photoshop. When saved as a standalone program, it is saved in RGB format with three channels, while as an alpha channel for another texture, it only captures one, which reduces the file size. Since Specular Maps are grayscale, it is best to save them as an alpha mask rather than as a separate, standalone texture. In the $normalmapalphaenvmapmask, use 1 to specify that you use the alpha channel of the normal map as the envmapmask. Save this as yourtexture_bumpspec (naming conventions don’t matter, we only find it helpful to mention in the name of the texture whether the normal map also gets a specular map) with the normal map with alpha preset.
This is where things diverge, depending on what we do. The Ambient Occlusion Map usually goes in a top layer set to Multiply with the opacity we worked on until we were satisfied with it.
Then start copying maps by right-clicking and selecting “Copy