So, bumpmap, does it need the 'edit flags' portion to work? Or is it just "get _bump.tga and _bump.tga.option"

And what does the bumpmap option in Meshtool accomplish?

you can bumpmap objects without flags. all you need is a msh.option for the mshfile with and a tga.option file for the bumpmap with in it.
alternatively you can bumpmap with the pandemictool ut that has no advantage.
repsharpshooters meshtool applies the bumpmapflag and activates gloss on the model by putting "80" in the 5th place behind ATRB, this looks good on smyller models but bigger models will glow really bright if you actuvate gloss on them.

So in the .msh.option its gonna be like for example....

-bump diffuserep_weap_inf_rifle

?

no, it should be "-bump rep_weap_inf_rifle" "i wrote "diffusetexturename" because the textures which determinate the color are called diffusetextures (as opposed to specular and bumptextures)

rather than giving the bumptexture an alphachannel and therefore increasing the size, better make it a simple greyscale-image and put "-bumpmap -format bump" into the tga.option

if you put "-format bump_alpha" in the tga.option, convert the bumpmap to an alphachannel and put it in the diffusetexture it may be possible to use it both as normal texture and as bumpmap,not sure though.

DarthD.U.C.K. wrote: rather than giving the bumptexture an alphachannel and therefore increasing the size, better make it a simple greyscale-image and put "-bumpmap -format bump" into the tga.option

if you put "-format bump_alpha" in the tga.option, convert the bumpmap to an alphachannel and put it in the diffusetexture it may be possible to use it both as normal texture and as bumpmap,not sure though.

Welllll I converted it to grayscale and BFbuilder gives an error that it doesnt recognize the texture.
An error like this:
And adding an alphachannel, doesnt do anything to the picture....am I meant to use the *Color to Alpha* option? If so color to which transparency?

that error sounds like you did save it with rle-compression on.
anyway, if you want to store the bumpinformation in the alphachannel (you should only do that if you want to put the bumpinformation into the diffusemap, im not sure if that will work) you have to apply a transparency mask with the greyscale copy of the layer, atleast thats how its called in gimp.

an important thing: just using a greyscaled copy of the diffusetexture as bumpmap will give you nearly no result, as you can see on all these shipped gunmodels. i posted a small tutorial on how to make a bumpmap some time ago