Texture Baking (Cycles)

The execution model is in blender-core. UVs come from blender-retopology-uv and materials from blender-pbr-materials.

One call

scripts/bake_maps.py -- --low SM_Crate --high Crate_high Crate_bolts --maps normal ao curvature id \
   --res 2048 --samples 64 --margin-px 16 --pack-orm --out //textures

Self-bake (procedural → textures, no --high): --low SM_Crate --maps basecolor roughness metallic normal --pack-orm. The script picks the GPU (OptiX/CUDA/HIP/Metal/oneAPI) and falls back to CPU, creates the target images with correct color spaces, cleans up its temporary nodes, and saves T_<name>_<N|AO|CURV|BC|R|M|ORM...>.png.

Preparation checklist (most bake bugs come from this list)

1. Low poly: UVs unwrapped, no overlaps (stacked/mirrored islands moved +1 U), padding ≥ 8 px at the bake resolution, scale applied.
2. Hard edges = UV seams on the low poly. Use either smooth shading with the bake handling gradients, or hard edges split at seams. Never put a hard edge inside a UV island.
3. Triangulate the low poly the same way the engine will, or export the triangulated mesh. Mismatched triangulation shows as shading seams.
4. High poly covers the low completely and pokes out of it only a little. Floaters (bolts, panel details) can hover just above the surface, but must stay within the extrusion distance.
5. Names: X_low / X_high pairs. Bake per part, or explode the parts apart (move each pair along an axis) so neighbouring parts don't project onto each other, then put them back.
6. Apply modifiers on the high poly as needed (multires and subd are evaluated automatically).