This is a noob question, but I would like to get my facts straight.
To create photo-realistic textures, I figured that these are the required elements. Please correct me if I am wrong on the following statements:
Image map. This is the photo of the actual texture, and it is used for its colour, and therefore should only be mapped to COL. This should also be at the top level.
Bump map. This decides what areas of the texture APPEAR raised or depressed. This should be mapped to the NOR. COL should be deselected. Adjust the normals values to suit the amount of “bumps”. This should be the second layer.
Spec map. This decides which areas of the texture is specular, and should be mapped to SPEC. Adjust spec in the shaders tab. This is the next layer.
Diffuse map. Is this the same as bump map? What should it be mapped to?
Normal map. Not sure what this is, since there is a bump map that maps to normal, and normal maps that I see are generally one constant blue colour (for a parquet wood flooring). What should this be mapped to? If NOR, then I guess there’s no effect since the whole map is one colour?
Would appreciate if the experts can enlighten me on these concepts, thanks.