What the correct name for the maps the accompany the diffuse map?

malcolm

What is the correct name for the maps that accompany the diffuse map? E.G. spec, normal, emissive. I've been referring to these for years as support maps, I just made that up though. I heard a CG Supervisor refer to these once as attribute maps. Is there a correct technical term for all the other maps you need to support the diffuse texture?

EarthQuake

Who's to say the diffuse itself isn't a support map?

There isn't any technical word for them, they're all just "texture maps" of various types.

malcolm

Technically speaking the diffuse is a support map because you plug it into the shading model, that being said I like to refer to the diffuse map as the key map having worked on many games that look good without any additional "support maps." I know there's plenty of workflows where you would actually author the normal map and ao map first, then start working on the diffuse. But, I still consider the diffuse map the most important map in my personal opinion.