Hello, I would like to make sci-fi bitmaps for walls, ground, and such.

However I have no idea where to begin or how.

I am thinking of making a futuristic first person shooter.

I use 3ds Max.

You might look for free textures to borrow (for example on opengameart.org) and/or recruit an artist ASAP. If you are unable to draw placeholder-quality textures, or to edit photographs of real walls and grounds to make them usable as textures, you should reconsider the whole project.

You do have alot of options because you are using 3ds max. You have access to a wide array of procedural textures and materials. Using them properly could net you really good placeholder graphics. With some extra effort on top, you may not need textures that much. I am guessing that this is related to game programming, and in that case you also have the option to render your materials to textures.

Take some time and focus on learning 3ds max. Otherwise, there are always free textures, as was said above.

I googled and found an image of a material which is most definitely possibly to create using standard 3ds max materials:

http://www.3dm3.com/tutorials/ps/

Even though the tutorial used custom materials, it's just a matter of learning how it all works. Eventually you will be able to easily go from concept to material by not having to guess as much.

Remember that everyone has to go through the same learning process. :)

good luck