Well, not being rich enough to afford the several thousand quid that 3DSMax costs, I use GMax at home and 3DS at work! But as far as doing that sort of thing for MS Flight Simulator goes with GMax, it's the texture name suffix which determines their use and this is detailed in the MSFS SDK. As far as other sims go, I don't know for sure, but I would imagine a similar system is in use.
I never normally bother with damage maps in stuff for FS, if I need damage to show on stuff for movies I make, I simply retexture it with a damaged one and reveal it on the footage by having an undamaged mask drop off in Moho or something similar. I'm sure one of the obsessive sub skinners will know the score as far as SH goes.
Here's how it works in FS:
For night lighting, check Night. You will have to provide a night time version of the texture with the filename 'test_LM'.bmp'.
For reflective surfaces, check Reflect. The level of transparency determines the amount of reflectivity. Use the alpha channel of the filename 'test.bmp' to specify the level of transparency of the texture.
For light effects, check Light Map. You will have to provide a light effect version of the texture with the filename 'test_L.bmp'.
For lighting with relective surfaces, check Light Map/Alpha. You will have to provide a light effect version of the texture with the filename 'test_L.bmp' that will be combined with 'test.bmp' . Additionally, you will have to add an alpha channel to filename 'test.bmp' to specify the level of transparency of the texture.
For damage effect, check Damage. You will have to provide a damage effect version of the texture with the filename 'test_D.bmp'.
Specify a Fallback Color. This color that Flight Simulator applies to the part if unable to apply the texture to the part.
How Materials and Textures Interact
When you apply a texture to a part that already has a material assigned to it, Flight Simulator produces the following visual result:
The main texture is mapped onto the part.
Flight Simulator ignores the Material Diffuse color
Flight Simulator ignores the Material Emissive color
Flight Simulator applies the Material Specular color
Flight Simulator applies the Material Ambient color
If Reflect checkbox was checked and the daytime texture has an alpha channel, the relections from the surrounding scenery are mapped onto the part depending on the level of the transparency.
The other textures from the other supplementary files are used depending on the time of day or level of aircraft damage
Chock