Baking maps for games

A game engine can’t draw millions of triangles per character. Bake maps keeps the look and drops the weight: it writes a low-poly mesh plus texture maps that carry the detail.

What you get

File	Holds
name_low.obj + .mtl	The low-poly mesh with texture coordinates
name_low_normal.png	The fine surface detail as a normal map
name_low_colour.png	The paint, including colour projected from photos
name_low_displacement.exr	How far the detail stands from the low-poly surface

How

1. Finish the object on a detail mesh, painted.
2. In the Objects panel’s Detail section choose Bake maps, pick a map size, and choose where to save.
3. Import the OBJ into your engine or Blender and plug the maps into its material.

Hair can be exported as hair cards alongside: see Exporting hair.

Note

There’s no automatic quad retopology. The low-poly mesh is an even triangle mesh, which game engines handle fine.