17. Texture baking tool

1. You can use texture baking:

1) To get correct displacement maps even in case when you have dragged surface in sculpt tool.

2) Sometimes you need to change topology or uv-set of a mesh. For example you need to simplify

a mesh and get textures for the simplified mesh. Here's where texture baking comes in handy.

2. If you choose ''Texture baking tool'' in the ''File'' menu you will see the window offering a string of options:

To get displacement map you should set "Smooth" option because displacement is calculated as difference between object in scene and smoothed input mesh. Check "Use current low poly mesh..." option if you want to project on current mesh. In this case it is better to check options" Use original positions..." and "Smooth mesh" if you want to get displacement and uncheck them if you want normalmap only.

3. Baking tool is especially important if you want to get a texture for low-poly mesh as a result.

3.1. As an example, let's take a sphere and draw the strip over it like shown below:

3.2. Then we should go to sculpt tool and distort it slightly using drag tool:

3.3. Then we should enter into the low-poly mode. You will see:

As you have distorted geometry, but left the texture undistorted, the mesh looks improperly in the low-poly mode. In this case baking tool can help you out. You should project the new high-poly distorted mesh onto the low-poly mesh. This is the way you get distorted textures. Here's the comparison result for usual export of normalmap texture and that of baking tool:

3.3.1. Simple export result:

3.3.2. Baking tool result:

3.4. The differene is obvious - using baking tool you have got the correct normal map.

3.4.1. The options for taking that normalmap are below:

[x] Use current low-poly mesh...

[ ] Use original positions ...

[ ] Smooth mesh

3.4.2. The options should be different if you need displacement:

[x] Use current low poly mesh

[ ] Use original positions...

[x] Smooth mesh

[x] Preserve positions ...

The results however, will be better if you don't need displacement and need normalmap only. It is due to getting displacement is not a trivial operation and the mesh should be smoothed prior to that. It is necessary because the displacement is difference between mesh and smoothed surface.

We think that simple example shows you why baking tool is so important.