Can anyone please explain to a newbie how to create textures i can use in GG using photos of walls and other textures online? i know how to export .dds in GIMP, im talking more about creating the texture_D and texture_S files that accompany the texture, and help GG not to crash.

So if you have your texture and its in .dds format then you simply name your texture
texturename_D.dds
The _D is the main texture picture with all the colors.
The _N is the normal map of the texture. It gives the texture some added depth.
The _S is the specular map and is basically how shiny your texture will be when light hits it.

You can create the normal map and the specular map with many different programs and making them look good takes some practice. I'm sure you can find some online tool or guide to quickly make some decent normal and spec maps.

When making textures in Game-Guru you have two different options. The standard DNS or PBR textures. Check this link it has a lot of helpful information and examples.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219411

Open your image in GIMP and duplicate the layer 3 times.
Name the layers as follows.
Color, specular, Illumination, Normal

You will need the Normals plugin.
Photo2Normal Plugin:
http://registry.gimp.org/node/69

In GG Normal direction +X -Y +Z

Hide all but the normal layer
Normal Maps: ***You must install this plugin first before doing this.***
http://registry.gimp.org/node/69
If you find you need more bump on your texture, cause you added a rough texture or need
to highlight some roughness. Open the image that you want to make a normal map.
Choose filter menu, Map, Normal map...
Under filter dropdown choose 9x9
under the scale, change that to 10
Press ok.

The image should turn blue with an impression of the height. Undo and repeat changing
the scale to you have the desire look, if it does not look bumped enough or is to much.
Save that file as the Filename_n.DDS dxt1 compression is fine

That is your _N file.

Hide all layers but your specular: _s
Info:
Specular - Mostly grey scale except for metalic objects, then the inverse of the reflectence color of the metal is used for the specular color.
Desaturate the layer. Luminance is fine.
Clamp the levels of black and white with the levels filter.
The whiter the brighter. Pure white and pure black are not realistic. Attain a happy medium.
When satisfied save this as Filename_s.dds dxt1 compression is fine.

Illumination texture _i.dds
Hide all but your illumination layer. Make sure alpha is on for that layer.
Select the areas on the texture you want to be illuminated.
Using the levels filter, make them all white.
Select the inverse selection and press the delete key.
export the file as Filename_i.dds dxt1 compression is fine.

This is for a non PBR workflow.

Soecular textures are best made from copies of the normal map desaturated.

hey thanks so much guys, one last issue. My textures look good in shadow, but they wash out to white in any lighting, but when you approach them, they darken a little, but still look horribly washed out. what am i doing wrong? i also noticed none of the textures in the files/texturesource folder have an illumination file, they are named _D _N and _S

Maybe in the test game TAB menu try turning the Global Specular slider all the way to 0.