[Bf-funboard] normalized diffuse light baking

[Hendrik Lober]

Hey there folks!

I bake a lot in cycles these days. Mainly precomputed light for 
different objects and color-coded masks for other materials to be 
applied later. So for example I would have a high-poly mesh for details 
and a low-poly mesh to bake to. The high-poly mesh has three diffuse 
materials: a red one, a green one and a blue one, which color-code 
different parts of the mesh. I bake two passes with the first one being 
diffuse color only and the second one being diffuse direct and indirect 
light without color.

I noticed the following problem: Even though the "color" button is 
unchecked for baking the lighting environment in the second pass, the 
diffuse color, specifically it's lightness has influence on the lighting 
environment. For example a dark blue diffuse material will be baked 
significantly darker than a white one, even with the "color" button 
unchecked.

I understand that this is expected behaviour from the standpoint of 
Global Illumination computation. But in my opinion it is unexpected from 
the standpoint of this button layout. I want the direct and indirect 
diffuse light without the influence of the color (and it's lightness).

I would therefor suggest a checkbox like for example "normalize color" 
to receive the baking result of a white material or a 
"lightness-corrected" GI-result. I understand that the 
"workaround"-options are plenty and easy to do, but this in my opinion 
logical error has costet me a lot of baking-time over the past year.

What are your opinions on this matter?

Thank you for your dedication, hard work and time
With kindest regards
Hendrik