RealFlight G4.5 introduces the ability to include normal and specular maps to your custom models. This guide will cover some of the basic details involved with applying normal and specular maps to your model or aircraft colorscheme. Note that this tutorial assumes prior knowledge of creating normal and specular maps and does not go into detail on how to create them. The tutorial is limited to making your existing normal and specular maps interface correctly with RealFlight.
For a third-party tutorial on creating normal maps, please visit the following site: Ben Cloward's Normal Mapping Tutorial
The process for including normal and specular maps with a KEX import is simple. Put your normal map in the same folder as your model's base texture. The normal map texture filename's base should be the same as that of your model's base texture, appended with "_n". That is, if your base texture is named "NexSTAR.tga", the normal map should be named "NexSTAR_n.tga". The same applies to specular maps, with the only difference being it should be appended with "_s". For example, "NexSTAR_s.tga".
Once your files are in place, you can simply import the KEX file in RealFlight, and the normal / specular maps will be automatically imported and used if they are found. Normal and specular maps are each optional and can be used independently of one another. That is, you can have a model that includes only a normal map, only a specular map, neither, or both.
This process applies to the importing of both aircraft and airport objects.