1. Installation Guide

Installing Easy Bake is quick and uses Blender's standard add-on installation method.

• Download the Add-on: Ensure you have downloaded the Easy Bake.zip file. Do not unzip this file.

• Open Blender: Launch Blender (Version 5.0.0 or higher is required).

• Open Preferences: Navigate to the top menu and select Edit > Preferences.

• Install: Click on the Add-ons tab on the left side, then click the Install... button at the top right.

• Select the Zip: Locate your downloaded Easy Bake.zip file, select it, and click Install Add-on.

• Enable the Add-on: After installation, a new entry named Easy Bake will appear in the list. Check the empty box next to its name to enable it.

• Find the Panel: Close the Preferences window. In your 3D Viewport, press the N key on your keyboard to open the right-hand Sidebar. You will see a new tab labeled Easy Bake.

2. Documentation & How to Use

The Easy Bake interface is designed to be straightforward and top-to-bottom. Here is how to navigate the settings:

Step 1: General Settings & Bake Parameters

• Active Object: The panel will display the name of your currently selected Mesh object. Make sure you have an object selected!

• Bake Settings (Gear Icon): Click the Preferences/Gear icon next to the active object name to open the advanced settings menu. Here you can adjust:

  • Max Samples: Set the render quality for baking.

  • Color Depth: Choose between standard 8-bit or high-quality 16-bit PNG exports.

  • Transparent PNG: Toggle whether your baked images should have an Alpha channel (Transparent Background) or a solid RGB background.

• Image Name: The prefix for your baked texture files. Note: This automatically updates to match the name of your active material, but you can manually type a custom name if preferred.

• Resolution: Select a standard texture size from the convenient drop-down menu (from 256 x 256 up to 8192 x 8192). To use non-square or specific dimensions, select Custom to reveal manual Width (W) and Height (H) inputs.

• Save To (Output Path): Click the folder icon to choose where your images, FBX, or GLB files will be saved. If left blank, files are saved to your system's temporary directory. Use the 🔍 (View Zoom) icon next to it to instantly open the selected folder in your file explorer.

Step 2: Choose a Baking Mode Easy Bake offers five distinct modes. You can only select one at a time:

• Bake PNG and Export FBX for UE5: Bakes your textures using the model's existing UVs, creates a temporary material to link them, and exports an .fbx file along with an .fbm texture folder. Ideal for direct Unreal Engine 5 import.

• Bake PNG and Export glTF for Godot: Bakes your textures using the model's existing UVs, generates a Godot-compatible PBR material layout, and exports a single, consolidated .glb model file alongside independent .png texture maps in the folder. Ideal for flawless Godot Engine import.

• Bake all Material to one image (Keep UVs): Combines multiple materials on a single mesh into one texture set without altering your original UV map.

• Bake all material to one image (Auto Smart UV): Automatically unwraps your model using Smart UV Project and bakes all its materials onto the new UV layout.

• Bake Atlas (Multiple Objects & Auto Smart UV): Select multiple separate objects in your scene. The tool will pack them all into a single shared UV Atlas and bake their materials into one unified texture set (Does not permanently join your meshes).

Step 3: Select Texture Maps & UV Settings

• Pure Colors: When enabled, this forces the View Transform to 'Standard' during the save process. This prevents Blender's AgX or Filmic color management from washing out your baked textures, ensuring exact hex color matching.

• Bake PBR Maps: Base Color is baked automatically. Check the boxes for any additional channels you need: Normal, Metallic, Roughness, AO, Emission, Lightmap (Shadows & Lighting), and Alpha.

• Export UV Layout: If checked, the tool will also save a semi-transparent PNG wireframe of your UV map.

• Smart UV Project Settings: (Only available in "Auto Smart UV" or "Bake Atlas" modes)

  • Angle: Set the angle limit for automatic unwrapping (default is 66°).

  • Margin: Adjust this slider to add padding between your UV islands, preventing texture bleeding.

Step 4: Execute

• Click the Bake Texture button at the bottom.

• A progress bar will appear showing the current baking status. Please wait for it to reach 100%.

3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Do I need to manually set up Image Nodes for baking? A: No, that is exactly what Easy Bake is designed to eliminate! The add-on automatically creates the necessary emission and image nodes in the background, bakes the textures, saves them to your specified folder, and cleanly removes the node tree edits afterward.

Q2: Will the "Auto Smart UV" or "Bake Atlas" modes destroy my original model? A: These modes will overwrite your active UV map with a new, automatically generated one using Blender's Smart UV Project. They do not alter your mesh geometry. If you have carefully hand-unwrapped your model and want to preserve your custom UVs, you must use the "Keep UVs" modes instead.

Q3: Does the "Bake Atlas" mode permanently join my separate meshes together? A: No, your meshes stay completely independent! The add-on intelligently packages the UVs and bakes the textures as if they were a single object, but your individual scene objects remain physically separate in the Outliner.

Q4: Where are my exported files and textures saved? A: They are saved to the directory you specify in the "Save To" field at the bottom of the panel. If you leave it blank, it defaults to your system's temporary folder. We highly recommend setting a specific folder so your exported files stay organized. You can click the 🔍 button next to the path to instantly open the output folder.

Q5: Baking takes a long time. How can I speed it up? A: The add-on uses Blender's Cycles engine under the hood. Baking time depends on your hardware, texture resolution, and render samples. Pro Tip: For baking standard PBR maps, you generally do not need high sample counts. Click the Gear Icon (Bake Settings) next to your Active Object name and lower your Max Samples (e.g., to 16, 32, or 64) before clicking bake.

Q6: Why do my baked colors look slightly washed out compared to my hex codes? A: By default, Blender applies color management filters like AgX or Filmic, which can shift pure colors to look more photorealistic. Check the Pure Colors box in the Easy Bake panel! This temporarily forces Blender into 'Standard' view transform while saving, preserving your raw hex values perfectly.

Q7: What does the "Lightmap" option do? A: Checking the Lightmap option bakes all scene lighting (direct light, indirect bounce light, and shadows) into a single map, completely ignoring the base color of the object. This is highly useful for game engines if you want to apply pre-calculated static lighting to your environments.

Q8: What type of materials does this add-on support? A: Easy Bake is built specifically for standard PBR workflows using Blender's Principled BSDF node. The add-on looks for standard inputs attached to the Principled BSDF (Base Color, Metallic, Roughness, Normal, etc.). Highly complex, custom non-PBR shader trees may not bake predictably.

Q9: Can I use this with Eevee? A: While you can design your materials while viewing them in Eevee, Blender's core texture baking system requires Cycles. Easy Bake will automatically switch to Cycles during the baking process and revert back when finished.

Q10: Why did my FBX export create an .fbm folder? A: When using the "Bake PNG and Export FBX" mode, the .fbm (FBX Media) folder is automatically generated by the FBX exporter. It stores your newly baked textures alongside the mesh, allowing for a seamless drag-and-drop import process into Unreal Engine 5 with textures automatically applied.

Q11: What files are generated when using the Godot export mode, and how do I use them? A: The "Bake PNG and Export glTF for Godot" mode generates a single consolidated .glb file and independent .png texture maps. The .glb file contains your 3D mesh and pre-linked material data, allowing you to instantly drag and drop it into Godot. The separate .png textures give you full flexibility to manually tweak maps or adjust compression settings directly within the engine later.