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Hello guys, we have been working on a new tool which should make your life easier when baking textures.
It supports maps baking, projection baking, bake to texture tiles, multiple geometries baking and all of this can also be animated.
This is a very simple "How To" until the help page is out.
The V-Ray Texture Baker SOP comes with 2 inputs:
- A low poly input used to specify the path to the baked object.
- A high poly input used to specify the source high-res geometry when using Projection baking.
Those 2 inputs are also present as parameter fields on the node itself, in case you find it more convenient to specify the path to a SOP node in another network instead of e.g. object merging.
You could specify more than 1 object when using the parameter fields instead of the node inputs, in which case the evaluation is handled as follows:
- in "Maps Baking" mode, the baking setup will be evaluated for every object in the list. For example:
LowPoly: /obj/First /obj/Second /obj/Third
Bake to Texture Tiles is On and uv range is 0:0 , 2:2
Result: this will produce 4 renders (one for every Texture tile) for every object in the list. Total of 12
- in "Projection Baking" mode, with more than one object in either the Low or High Poly lists, one of the following will happen:
For Single Low Poly and Multiple High Poly objects, each high poly object will, one by one, be projected over the low poly object. To prevent overwriting of the output files, use the ${CTO} tag in the output file path.
For Multiple Low Poly and Single High Poly objects, the high poly object will be projected over each low poly object, one by one. To prevent overwriting of the output files, use the ${CPO} tag in the output file path.
For Multiple Low Poly and Multiple High Poly objects, each high poly object will be projected over the corresponding low poly object in the low poly list.
Parameters:
Baker tab:
- Baking Mode: used to specify either Map or Projection baking.
- UV attribute: the name of the uv attribute on the baked geometry. The attribute name should be the same across all objects for the baking process to work as expected.
- Capture UV Range: will evaluate the Min/Max range of the UV attribute and populate the "UV Min" and "UV Max" parameters below. When baking multiple objects, the evaluated range will be based on the Min/Max range for the entire set of objects.
- Dilation (Edge Padding): The number of pixels to expand around geometry
- Bake to Texture Tiles: Enables texture tile baking. Make sure to add a tile token to the Output file path when baking to tiles. Such token can be one of:
${UDIM}, $UDIM, ${udim}, $udim - Mari style naming
${UVTILE},$UVTILE - Mudbox Style naming, starts from 1
${uvtile},$uvtile - Mudbox Style naming, starts from 0
${U},$U,${V},$V ; ${u},$u,${v},$v - for manually placing the u and v value in the file name, capital letters start from 1,lowercase start from 0
For more information: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...itmap+Textures
Projection Settings:
- Mode: direction of the traced ray.
- Normals: which normals to use when shooting rays - those of the geometry or normals generated by V-Ray.
- Max Depth - The maximum depth for the traced rays, in scene units.
- Cage offset - Used to offset the ray's initial location. Used when the baked low poly object and the high res geometry overlap perfectly, causing an inability to intersect the rays with the low poly geometry.
Guides:
- Show Cage: generates a wireframe preview of the baked low poly geometry based on the "Cage Offset" parameter.
- Visualize Depth: generates a clipping plane which can be useful when debugging projection artifacts
Clip Settings:
- Axis: the clipping plane axis
- Clipper Position: offset for the clipping plane along the specified "Axis" parameter
- Invert: flips the clipping plane's orientation
Renderer tab:
Common V-Ray settings. Engine, sampler, GI and Shadows switches
Batch Settings:
When baking multiple geometries or texture tiles, the V-Ray Baker Tool uses TOPs. The following are TOPs specific controls:
- Auto Save HipFile - when a render is started in Background mode, as is in the cases described above, TOPs requires the scene to be saved before rendering.
- All Frames in One Batch - when baking animation this option can speedup the render.
- One Render at a Time - starts only one render job.
- CPUs to Use - specifies how many cpus to be used when rendering in batch mode. Positive values specify the actual number, negative values specify the number of cores NOT to use.
Output tab:
Controls for animation, resolution, output filename and which elements to be saved to disk.
"Preview Element" will apply the selected element over the object after the render is completed and files are saved.
Custom Attributes - outputs the specified attribute to a separate element.
Custom Operator - outputs the specified VOP node to a separate element.
Current Limitations:
Preview of final result is only available for one object.
Preview of final result does not work when baking to texture tiles.
Object paths for the Low and High poly lists should be absolute.
No automatic support for Metalness workflow (we're working on it).
Final render must be started from the "Execute Baking" button in the V-Ray Baker Tool's UI when the Low/High poly lists contain more than one object, or when baking to texture tiles.
When baking trough TOPs, files are saved with gamma 1
Height/Displacement map based on distance between Low poly and High poly meshes no yet supported
*${CPO} - currently processed object
*${CTO} - current target object
It supports maps baking, projection baking, bake to texture tiles, multiple geometries baking and all of this can also be animated.
This is a very simple "How To" until the help page is out.
The V-Ray Texture Baker SOP comes with 2 inputs:
- A low poly input used to specify the path to the baked object.
- A high poly input used to specify the source high-res geometry when using Projection baking.
Those 2 inputs are also present as parameter fields on the node itself, in case you find it more convenient to specify the path to a SOP node in another network instead of e.g. object merging.
You could specify more than 1 object when using the parameter fields instead of the node inputs, in which case the evaluation is handled as follows:
- in "Maps Baking" mode, the baking setup will be evaluated for every object in the list. For example:
LowPoly: /obj/First /obj/Second /obj/Third
Bake to Texture Tiles is On and uv range is 0:0 , 2:2
Result: this will produce 4 renders (one for every Texture tile) for every object in the list. Total of 12
- in "Projection Baking" mode, with more than one object in either the Low or High Poly lists, one of the following will happen:
For Single Low Poly and Multiple High Poly objects, each high poly object will, one by one, be projected over the low poly object. To prevent overwriting of the output files, use the ${CTO} tag in the output file path.
For Multiple Low Poly and Single High Poly objects, the high poly object will be projected over each low poly object, one by one. To prevent overwriting of the output files, use the ${CPO} tag in the output file path.
For Multiple Low Poly and Multiple High Poly objects, each high poly object will be projected over the corresponding low poly object in the low poly list.
Parameters:
Baker tab:
- Baking Mode: used to specify either Map or Projection baking.
- UV attribute: the name of the uv attribute on the baked geometry. The attribute name should be the same across all objects for the baking process to work as expected.
- Capture UV Range: will evaluate the Min/Max range of the UV attribute and populate the "UV Min" and "UV Max" parameters below. When baking multiple objects, the evaluated range will be based on the Min/Max range for the entire set of objects.
- Dilation (Edge Padding): The number of pixels to expand around geometry
- Bake to Texture Tiles: Enables texture tile baking. Make sure to add a tile token to the Output file path when baking to tiles. Such token can be one of:
${UDIM}, $UDIM, ${udim}, $udim - Mari style naming
${UVTILE},$UVTILE - Mudbox Style naming, starts from 1
${uvtile},$uvtile - Mudbox Style naming, starts from 0
${U},$U,${V},$V ; ${u},$u,${v},$v - for manually placing the u and v value in the file name, capital letters start from 1,lowercase start from 0
For more information: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...itmap+Textures
Projection Settings:
- Mode: direction of the traced ray.
- Normals: which normals to use when shooting rays - those of the geometry or normals generated by V-Ray.
- Max Depth - The maximum depth for the traced rays, in scene units.
- Cage offset - Used to offset the ray's initial location. Used when the baked low poly object and the high res geometry overlap perfectly, causing an inability to intersect the rays with the low poly geometry.
Guides:
- Show Cage: generates a wireframe preview of the baked low poly geometry based on the "Cage Offset" parameter.
- Visualize Depth: generates a clipping plane which can be useful when debugging projection artifacts
Clip Settings:
- Axis: the clipping plane axis
- Clipper Position: offset for the clipping plane along the specified "Axis" parameter
- Invert: flips the clipping plane's orientation
Renderer tab:
Common V-Ray settings. Engine, sampler, GI and Shadows switches
Batch Settings:
When baking multiple geometries or texture tiles, the V-Ray Baker Tool uses TOPs. The following are TOPs specific controls:
- Auto Save HipFile - when a render is started in Background mode, as is in the cases described above, TOPs requires the scene to be saved before rendering.
- All Frames in One Batch - when baking animation this option can speedup the render.
- One Render at a Time - starts only one render job.
- CPUs to Use - specifies how many cpus to be used when rendering in batch mode. Positive values specify the actual number, negative values specify the number of cores NOT to use.
Output tab:
Controls for animation, resolution, output filename and which elements to be saved to disk.
"Preview Element" will apply the selected element over the object after the render is completed and files are saved.
Custom Attributes - outputs the specified attribute to a separate element.
Custom Operator - outputs the specified VOP node to a separate element.
Current Limitations:
Preview of final result is only available for one object.
Preview of final result does not work when baking to texture tiles.
Object paths for the Low and High poly lists should be absolute.
No automatic support for Metalness workflow (we're working on it).
Final render must be started from the "Execute Baking" button in the V-Ray Baker Tool's UI when the Low/High poly lists contain more than one object, or when baking to texture tiles.
When baking trough TOPs, files are saved with gamma 1
Height/Displacement map based on distance between Low poly and High poly meshes no yet supported
*${CPO} - currently processed object
*${CTO} - current target object
