[Bf-gamedev] Texture Baking Maps - Proposal

[metalliandy]

> Keep in mind that the proposal was drafted to make it simple to 
> re-bake the same maps for the same (or different) object(s). So before 
> getting to the specifics it would be nice to see a 'show of hands' on 
> whether this would bring benefits.

Sure, no problem. :)
> Do you always use the same UV Map for all the maps you are baking?
Yes, for the vast majority of cases. Maybe in .01% of cases I will bake 
an AO map to another UV set but this technique has largely been made 
redundant with the adoption of SSAO in all modern game engines (Even 
SSAO is getting old now and is being replaced by SSDO) so I cant imagine 
why anyone would really want to still do this. It's also expensive to 
have multiple UV sets (cost increasing with each new vert. added in the 
UV map) so again I'm not really seeing the benefit to this for game use 
at least. Geometry is cheaper now more than ever but it doesn't make 
sense to waste it when better alternatives exist. Perhaps it would still 
be a good idea to have this for the sake of legacy though.

Having said all this,  it would be useful if for example when there is a 
character mesh that has separate UVs for the head and body, but even 
then I'm not sure that the extra complication would offset by the benefits.
Blender's baking workflow is already super fast so there isnt much to 
gain in that respect IMHO.

> Your propose implies that all the maps are exported externally, which 
> may not fit so well in Blender design in my opinion. Ideally you want 
> to bake the maps and preview if they look good in Blender. That's why 
> we propose to select an Image Datablock for each map
Yes, but there is also the fact that many people in gamedev wont be 
using Blender as the final platform or even view their texture in 
Blender at all. Because of this they would have to export all the maps 
to use the externally so it would be nice to automate this. I think it 
is more likely that people will be viewing their textures in UDK, Unity, 
CryENGINE, Marmoset or Source.


Cheers,

-Andy

On 31/10/2013 18:01, Dalai Felinto wrote:
> Hi Andy,
>
> Keep in mind that the proposal was drafted to make it simple to 
> re-bake the same maps for the same (or different) object(s). So before 
> getting to the specifics it would be nice to see a 'show of hands' on 
> whether this would bring benefits.
>
> Now for the specifics:
>
> > Having the per object presets for baking isnt really needed as you 
> would generally want all the maps to have exactly the same settings 
> for margin, AA and use the same cages etc.
>
> If people don't need that control per-object, then sure. It would make 
> things simpler. The advantage of having this per-map is that you can 
> easily create multiple maps for the same type (e.g., Normal) and compare
>
> > The workflow I would expect is that the user selects objects as they 
> do now (HP then LP), select the maps they want to bake, the size of 
> the maps etc. and then hit bake with the only difference to now is 
> that they have multiple maps selected which Blender would 
> automatically create with the appropriate suffixes.
>
> * Do you always use the same UV Map for all the maps you are baking?
>
> * Your propose implies that all the maps are exported externally, 
> which may not fit so well in Blender design in my opinion. Ideally you 
> want to bake the maps and preview if they look good in Blender. That's 
> why we propose to select an Image Datablock for each map.
>
> Cheers,
> Dalai
>
>
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