What Is Texture Baking? (Map Baking)

Definition of Texture Baking

Using two assets—a vintage camera and a rustic wooden stool—this demonstrates how texture baking works: diffuse/albedo, AO, and normal maps, as well as optional light or curvature maps, are baked onto a UV atlas. This reduces render times, ensures material consistency, and delivers a photorealistic look even in the web viewer.

Short and Sweet – When Is Baking Worth It?

Examples of Texture Baking: AO, Normal, and Lightmaps

Using two assets—a vintage camera and a rustic wooden stool—you'll see how textures are baked: diffuse/albedo, AO, normal maps, and (if needed) light or curvature maps are neatly mapped onto a UV atlas. This reduces render time, keeps materials consistent, and ensures a photorealistic look even in the web viewer.

Rustic Wooden Stool – AO & Normal Maps Add Depth to Every Groove

Vintage Camera – Baked Patina & Lightmaps for Subtle Shiny Edges

Why is this relevant to marketing?

• Faster iterations: Color changes, material updates, or CI adjustments can be made more quickly because the base shadows and details are already “in place.”
• Real-time performance: Web viewers, AR apps, and configurators benefit from baked light/AO maps.
• Consistent look across all channels: Create it once, use it everywhere—e-commerce, print, social media.
• Cost-effective: Less rendering time = less budget for raw computing power.

Mini Comparison: Baking vs. “On the Fly”

Here's How Texture Baking Works

1. Apply UVs neatly

- Before we even start baking, we create clean UV maps without overlaps (exception: intentional tiling). This is the only way to ensure that AO, light, or normal map information is applied to the correct location on the mesh without artifacts. You can use our Tileable Textures Checkerto verify whether your textures are truly seamless and repeatable.

You can find more information about model and UV preparation under 3D Modeling.

2. High → Low Transfer

- From the highly detailed model, we bake normal, AO, and curvature maps onto the optimized low-poly geometry. This way, fine details remain visible without driving up the polygon count. We show how these maps are used in shaders in the blog post “Shaders for Photorealistic CGI.”

3. Check Light/AO maps & blend them subtly

- Baked Light and AO maps add depth and define contact areas. We use them strategically and subtly to avoid “dirty” edges and ensure the brand’s look remains clean. You can get an overview of the entire process on our 3D Visualization page.

4. Export for PBR/real-time formats

- We export finished maps in formats such as glTF, USDZ or FBX - including clean PBR parameters (Albedo, Roughness Map, Metallic, Normal). This ensures consistent results in render pipelines and real-time configurators. Find out more under Material & Surface Digitization.

5. Implementation in the Viewer or Shop

-Finally, we integrate the assets into viewers, online stores, or AR tools. Baked textures keep load times low and maintain the look across all channels. We demonstrate how this works in practice in our 3D Product Visualization – Product section.

Texture Baking Checklist

FAQ - Texture Baking

Do I need texture baking if I'm using ray tracing?

Not always. Ray tracing calculates lighting in a physically accurate way—but baking is still useful for preparing ambient occlusion (AO) or static lighting effects for real-time viewers. Learn more at Ray Tracing.

What are the minimum number of maps I need to bake?

For PBR workflows: Normal Map, optional AO. Curvature and Thickness help with masking. See Physically Based Rendering (PBR).

How can I prevent artifacts from forming during baking?

Clean UVs, sufficient padding, a cage for the normal bake, and 16-bit/32-bit files for lightmaps.

Is AO better rendered statically or dynamically (SSAO)?

For Stills/Packshot Renderings: baked. For interactive AR/VR: often SSAO – depending on performance budget. Background: Ambient Occlusion (AO).

What resolution and bit depth should I choose for baked maps?

For web viewers, 1–2k textures are often sufficient; for close-ups or print, 4k+ is preferable. You should bake AO and lightmaps in 16-bit (or 32-bit float) to avoid banding—the reason why is explained in “Baking Normal Maps on the GPU” (https://developer.nvidia.com/gpugems/gpugems3/part-iv-image-effects/chapter-22-baking-normal-maps-gpu).

How do I prevent visible seams and artifacts during a normal bake?

Clean UVs, sufficient padding, correctly placed hard edges, and a well-designed cage mesh are essential. You can find details about the "skew" issue and cage offsets in the Polycount Baking Guide.

When and why should I use a cage?

A cage prevents rays from encountering incorrect geometry during baking. A small offset (1–2% of the model's dimensions) is a good starting point. You can see how this is done in the Toolbag Baking Tutorial.

Can I automate and batch-bake in Substance?

Yes. Substance Painter offers automatic baking for multiple maps per mesh using presets. Read more about this under " Baking in Substance 3D Painter."

Which formats are suitable for PBR assets on the web or for AR?

USDZ is the standard for AR/iOS— USDZ provides information for ARKit. For Web/Viewer, glTF/GLB (Khronos) are recommended—you can optionally add this to another FAQ.

Differences: AO Map vs. Lightmap – Which One Should I Use and When?

AO captures micro-shadows in corners (for greater depth), while lightmaps store the complete lighting setup for static scenes. Ray tracing does not automatically replace lightmaps—see " Baking Normal Maps on the GPU."

Do I still need texture baking if I'm using ray tracing?

Ray tracing calculates light in a physically accurate way. Nevertheless, baked AO/lightmaps are valuable for real-time applications or fast web viewers. Background and workflow tips: Polycount Baking Guide.