how do i make some parts of my texture glossy while keeping other parts not glossy...and have it all in one texture...is it possible? in 3dMAX by the way

use the alpha-chanel of the map in the gloss-map slot?!

make a specular map and apply it in the Specular Level or Glossiness slot (depending on the effect you want).

Specular Level: A greyscale map in this slot will use white for "really crazy shiny", black for "not shiny at all". So metal might be a fairly light value, and flesh would be a fairly dark one.

Glossiness: A greyscale map in this slot will use black for a very wide highlight (like those found on more grainy or bumpy surfaces), and white for a very sharp highlight (like on ultra-smooth surfaces.

You could always look up these map slot types in the 3dsmax help too.

I find it helpful to stick a noise map in the gloss slot and make the settings so you get a solid colour (there a better way to do this btw? gradient ramp w/ one colour seems to not work right)

so if you combine multiple materials with different gloss maps you could render off a combined gloss map by transferring that noise map into the diffuse
make sense?

hmmm...it sounds like it should make sense, but what its not working...I am assuming its like using a alpha channel with occupancy tga file...is there a tut or maybe you could just show me what the map should look like.