the ISD never really looked shiny, the only shinemapped ships i can think of should be TIEs. everything else is sorta dirty, gritty. not super shiny, like how a sinemap makes stuff.
And you reckon there aren't any shiny parts at all, like turret barrels, windows etc. assorted stuff?
The fact of the matter is that for the most part, ships in Star Wars universe (sans prequel trilogy) tend to have very close to matte surface finish with very low gloss factor, be it due to wear, tear and grime and dirt or by design - I would think the latter makes sense for the same reasons most combat airplanes are painted with gloss-reducing paint; to reduce reflections that might reveal the airplane to observers and might make it more difficult for the pilots to do their jobs being blinded by not only sun but also the reflections.
However, shinemaps don't automatically "make" ships shiney, that depends on what's in the map. Completely black shinemap with zero alpha channel means matte surface. Drop in some RGB intensity for parts that are supposed to have specular reflections, alpha intensity for parts that are flat enough to work as mirrors, like cockpit glass, chromed parts (eurgh) and Star Destroyer bridge/observation deck windows.
As far as I'm concerned, TIE's aren't supposed to be especially shiny compared to rebel ships, they are just cleaner due to better maintenance and Empire's need to look good and scary and effective. But you need to remember that all we've seen is normal mapping with no diffuse or shine maps yet, and just normal maps make the renderer use some universal specular factor, which more then likely makes the renders we're seeing a lot more shiny than the end result is going to be.
If you want examples, open up FS2_Open with normal maps, then go to ship lab, and switch off diffuse and specular maps. You'll end up with ships made of black shiny leather or somesuch matter. So please, let's just let Brand do his thing and let's all argue about how it should have been done when it's ready (and then let the SW conversion team do as they see fit and end up with excellent results).
