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How to bake mesh maps | Substance 3D Painter

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Substance 3D Painter

Substance 3D Painter

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    2. How to bake mesh maps
    3. Baking visualization settings
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    5. Technical issues
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        1. Artifacts and glitches on Mac OS with Custom GPUs
        2. Blocky artifacts appear on textures in the viewport
        3. Mesh appears pink in the viewport
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        1. Crash during export
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        5. Impossible to drag and drop files into the shelf
        6. Impossible to use the ALT keyboard shortcut on Linux
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    6. Workflow Issues
      1. Export Issues
        1. My exported opacity map is totally black
        2. Texture dilation or Padding
      2. Tools Issues
        1. Normal map looks incorrect when loaded in layer or tool properties
        2. Paint Tool bleeds on other UV islands
      3. Project Issues
        1. A project has been processed as a text file and is now corrupted
        2. Loading files from a network
        3. Preserve brush strokes setting stays disabled
        4. Projects are really big
      4. Library Issues
        1. Thumbnails in the shelf look incorrect
        2. Error when importing a Font
      5. Viewport Issues
        1. Mesh faces disappear when looking at them from behind
        2. Viewports and textures are blurry or lack sharpness
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        1. Substance Source plugin doesn't load
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        1. Maintenance is expired dialog on startup
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  12. Scripting and development
    1. Scripts and plugins
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    2. Shader API Reference
      1. Shader API overview
      2. Changelog - Shader API
      3. Libraries - Shader API
        1. Lib Alpha - Shader API
        2. Lib Bayer - Shader API
        3. Lib Defines - Shader API
        4. Lib Emissive - Shader API
        5. Lib Env - Shader API
        6. Lib Normal - Shader API
        7. Lib PBR - Shader API
        8. Lib PBR Aniso - Shader API
        9. Lib Pom - Shader API
        10. Lib Random - Shader API
        11. Lib Sampler - Shader API
        12. Lib Sparse - Shader API
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        4. Layering Bind Materials - Shader API
        5. Layering Declare Stacks - Shader API
      5. Shaders - Shader API
        1. PBR Material Layering - Shader API
        2. PBR Metal Rough - Shader API
        3. Pixelated - Shader API
        4. Surface Shader - Shader API
        5. Toon - Shader API
  13. Release notes
    1. Release notes overview
    2. All Changes
    3. Version 10.1
    4. Version 10.0
    5. Version 9.1
    6. Old versions
      1. Version 9.0
      2. Version 8.3
      3. Version 8.2
      4. Version 8.1
      5. Version 7.4
      6. Version 7.3
      7. Version 7.2
      8. Version 2021.1 (7.1.0)
      9. Version 2020.2 (6.2.0)
      10. Version 2020.1 (6.1.0)
      11. Version 2019.3
      12. Version 2019.2
      13. Version 2019.1
      14. Version 2018.3
      15. Version 2018.2
      16. Version 2018.1
      17. Version 2017.4
      18. Version 2017.3
      19. Version 2017.2
      20. Version 2017.1
      21. Version 2.6
      22. Version 2.5
      23. Version 2.4
      24. Version 2.3
      25. Version 2.2

How to bake mesh maps

This page gives an overview of the baking process in Painter dedicated baking mode.

1 - Switch to baking mode

By default, Painter is set to the Painting mode when creating or opening a project. To be able to bake mesh maps, you need to switch to the baking mode. To do so, you can use one of the following way:

  • Use the croissant icon in the contextual toolbar at the top right of the viewport

  • Use the mode menu and select Bake mesh maps

  • Use the F8 keyboard shortcut

2 - Select Texture Sets and UV Tiles

Inside the Texture Set list, use the checkbox next to Texture Sets names (and UV Tiles number if present) to define which parts will be baked:

3 - Select bakers

Inside the Mesh Map Bakers window, enable or disable the baker you wish to use:

4 - Change common settings

You can click on the common settings to change the texture resolution, load high-poly meshes and adjust and other settings:

5 - Adjust Max Frontal Distance

If you are baking with a high-poly mesh, change the Max Frontal Distance setting in the Common settings to make sure there is no red spots visible on the mesh.

If you are not baking with a high-poly mesh, simply enable the Use Low Poly Mesh as High Poly Mesh setting instead.

6 - Start the baking process

At the bottom of the viewport, click on the Bake button to start the baking process.

7 - Inspect the Baking Log for errors

Once the baking process has finished, you can take a look at the Baking Log window to check if there are any errors reported.

If there are any, click on the little arrow next to the error message to make the relevant baker settings visible:

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