EZBake Documentation

Version 1.0 | For Blender 3.6+

Professional PBR texture baking for Blender. Convert Principled BSDF materials into optimized texture maps for game engines and real-time rendering.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Installation
3. Quick Start Guide
4. Interface Overview
5. Core Settings
6. Channel Reference
7. Game Engine Presets
8. Advanced Features
9. Common Workflows
10. Troubleshooting
11. Frequently Asked Questions

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1. Introduction

What is EZBake?

EZBake is a professional Blender add-on designed to streamline the process of baking Principled BSDF materials into individual texture maps. Whether you're preparing assets for Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, or other game engines, EZBake automates the complex node setup and baking workflow, saving you hours of manual work.

Key Capabilities

• 30+ Channel Support: Bake any input from the Principled BSDF shader including Base Color, Metallic, Roughness, Normal, Emission, Alpha, and advanced properties like Sheen, Clear Coat, and Thin Film.
• Game Engine Integration: Pre-configured packed texture maps for Unity (Standard & HDRP), Unreal Engine (ORM), Godot (ORM), and CryEngine (MRG).
• Smart Material Management: Merge multiple materials into a single game-ready asset or keep them separate for modular workflows.
• Non-Destructive Workflow: Bake on duplicates to preserve your original assets, or overwrite directly for rapid iteration.
• Professional Quality: Industry-standard texture output with configurable resolution, margins, and sampling.

System Requirements

• Blender version 3.6 or newer
• Materials must use the Principled BSDF shader
• Objects must have at least one UV map
• Cycles or EEVEE render engine (Cycles recommended for AO and shadow baking)

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2. Installation

Standard Installation

1. Download the EZBake.py file
2. Open Blender
3. Navigate to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons
4. Click Install button at the top
5. Browse to the downloaded EZBake.py file and select it
6. Enable the add-on by checking the box next to "Material: MOUVAL EZBake"
7. Save preferences to retain the add-on on restart

Verifying Installation

After installation, verify EZBake is working:

1. Select any mesh object in your scene
2. Open the Properties Editor
3. Click the Render Properties tab (camera icon)
4. Scroll down to find the EZBake panel

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3. Quick Start Guide

Your First Bake in 5 Steps

Step 1: Prepare Your Object

Ensure your object has:

• At least one material using Principled BSDF
• At least one UV map (use the Auto Lightmap feature if needed)

Step 2: Select Your Object

In the 3D Viewport, select the mesh object you want to bake.

Step 3: Access EZBake

Navigate to Properties Editor > Render Properties > EZBake panel.

Step 4: Configure Bake Settings

• Expand the Bake section
• Open Settings > Channels
• Enable the channels you want to bake (e.g., Base Color, Metallic, Roughness, Normal)
• Set your desired resolution under Core Settings

Step 5: Execute Bake

Click the Bake button and wait for the process to complete. Your baked textures will be created and automatically assigned to your object.

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4. Interface Overview

EZBake's interface is organized into collapsible sections within the Render Properties panel.

Main Sections

Info

Displays version information and quick troubleshooting tips for common issues like black or broken bakes.

Lightmap

Provides quick access to the Auto Lightmap Unwrap operator, which automatically creates UV maps using Smart UV Project if your mesh doesn't have proper UVs.

Bake

The main baking interface containing all settings and channel toggles:

• Settings: Core baking parameters
• Channels: Individual channel toggles organized by category
• Bake Button: Executes the baking operation

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5. Core Settings

Core settings control the fundamental behavior of the baking process.

Target

Option	Description
Single Object	Bakes only the currently active mesh object
Multi Selection	Bakes all selected mesh objects in the scene

Resolution

Sets the square texture resolution for baked maps. Available resolutions:

• 128 x 128
• 256 x 256
• 512 x 512
• 1024 x 1024 (default)
• 2048 x 2048
• 4096 x 4096
• 8192 x 8192

Scope

Option	Description
All Materials (default)	Bakes all materials assigned to the object
Active Material	Bakes only the currently active material slot

Object Handling

Option	Description
Duplicate (default)	Creates a copy of the object and materials before baking, preserving the original
Overwrite	Bakes directly onto the original object and materials

Output

Option	Description
Join All (Game Asset) (default)	Merges all selected meshes and materials into a single object with one unified PBR material. Ideal for game engines.
Keep Separate	Maintains each material slot separately with its own baked textures. Useful for modular assets.

UV Map

Specifies which UV map to use for baking. If left empty, EZBake uses the active UV map. Ensure your UV map is properly unwrapped and has no overlapping islands for best results.

Margin

Sets the bake margin in pixels (0-128, default: 2). The margin extends the texture slightly beyond UV island boundaries to prevent seams and filtering artifacts.

Image Handling

Overwrite Image If Exists

When enabled (default), replaces existing image datablocks with the same name. Disable this to create new versions instead.

Image Name

Sets the base name for generated texture files. Default: BaseColor_Bake

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6. Channel Reference

EZBake supports baking over 30 individual channels from the Principled BSDF shader. Channels are organized into logical categories.

PBR Core Channels

Channel	Description	Color Space
Base Color	The diffuse/albedo color of the material. This is the primary color channel.	sRGB
Metallic	Controls metallic response. White = metal, black = dielectric.	Non-Color
Roughness	Surface roughness. White = rough/matte, black = smooth/glossy.	Non-Color
Smoothness	Inverted roughness (1 - Roughness). Used by some engines like Unity.	Non-Color
Normal	Tangent-space normal map encoding surface detail.	Non-Color
Alpha	Transparency/opacity channel. White = opaque, black = transparent.	Non-Color

Lighting & Emission

Channel	Description	Notes
Emission	Self-illumination color from the Emission input	Baked as flat color without lighting calculation
Emission Strength	Emission intensity multiplier	Grayscale output
Emission Samples	Fully lit emission using the Combined pass	Includes lighting calculation; disable scene lights for clean results
Ambient Occlusion (AO)	Cavity shading showing surface occlusion	Requires Cycles render engine

Transmission & Refraction

Channel	Description
Transmission	Light transmission through the surface (for glass, translucent materials)
IOR	Index of Refraction controlling how light bends through transparent surfaces

Subsurface Scattering

Channel	Description
Subsurface Weight	Amount of subsurface scattering effect
Subsurface Radius	Color-based scattering radius for red, green, and blue channels
Subsurface Scale	Global scale multiplier for subsurface effect
Subsurface Anisotropy	Directional scattering bias
Diffuse Roughness	Roughness applied to the diffuse component

Specular

Channel	Description
Specular IOR Level	Specular intensity controlled by IOR
Specular Tint	Tints specular reflections with the base color
Specular Anisotropic	Elongates specular highlights (for brushed metal, hair)
Specular Anisotropic Rotation	Rotates the anisotropic highlight direction
Tangent	Custom tangent direction for anisotropic shading

Clear Coat

Channel	Description
Clear Coat	Weight/intensity of the clear coat layer (for car paint, lacquer)
Clear Coat Roughness	Roughness of the clear coat layer
Clear Coat IOR	Index of refraction for the clear coat
Clear Coat Tint	Color tint applied to the clear coat
Clear Coat Normal	Separate normal map for the clear coat layer

Sheen

Channel	Description
Sheen Weight	Intensity of fabric-like sheen effect
Sheen Roughness	Controls the size/softness of the sheen highlight
Sheen Tint	Color tint for the sheen layer

Thin Film

Channel	Description
Thin Film Thickness	Thickness of thin film causing iridescence effects
Thin Film IOR	Index of refraction for the thin film layer

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7. Game Engine Presets

EZBake includes pre-configured packed texture maps for popular game engines. These automatically combine multiple channels into industry-standard formats.

Unity Standard

Channel Packing:

• Red: Metallic
• Green: (unused/black)
• Blue: (unused/black)
• Alpha: Smoothness (inverted Roughness)

Use Case: Standard shader material in Unity's built-in render pipeline.

Unity HDRP MaskMap

Channel Packing:

• Red: Metallic
• Green: Ambient Occlusion
• Blue: Detail mask (currently unused/white)
• Alpha: Smoothness (inverted Roughness)

Use Case: Mask Map texture for Unity's High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) Lit shader.

Unreal ORM

Channel Packing:

• Red: Ambient Occlusion
• Green: Roughness
• Blue: Metallic
• Alpha: (unused)

Use Case: Standard packed texture format for Unreal Engine 4 and 5. Import as "OcclusionRoughnessMetallic".

Godot ORM

Channel Packing:

• Red: Ambient Occlusion
• Green: Roughness
• Blue: Metallic
• Alpha: (unused)

Use Case: ORM texture for Godot Engine's StandardMaterial3D and ORMMaterial3D.

CryEngine MRG

Channel Packing:

• Red: Roughness
• Green: Metalness
• Blue: Ambient Occlusion
• Alpha: (unused)

Use Case: Packed texture for CryEngine's PBR workflow (note different channel order from Unreal/Godot).

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8. Advanced Features

Combined Bake

The Combined Bake option produces a single, fully lit texture without channel separation. This creates an "unlit" result that captures the visual appearance of your material in one texture.

When to Use:

• Creating texture atlases for mobile games
• Baking lighting into textures for performance
• Simplifying complex shaders into a single diffuse texture

Shadow Catcher

Generates a specialized shadow plate texture by inverting the Ambient Occlusion pass. Perfect for compositing 3D objects over photo backgrounds.

Shadow Mode Options

Mode	Description
Ambient Occlusion	Uses inverted AO with contrast adjustment (default)
Shadow	Uses Cycles Shadow pass for sharper shadows

Shadow Contrast

Adjusts the contrast of the shadow plate (0.0 - 10.0, default: 0.2). Higher values produce darker, more pronounced shadows.

Procedural Bevel

Adds fake edge highlights to your normal map using Blender's Bevel shader node, eliminating the need for actual beveled geometry.

Settings

• Bevel Width: Radius of the fake bevel (0.0 - 10.0, default: 0.0002). Smaller values create tighter edge highlights.
• Bevel Samples: Sample count for noise reduction (0 - 256, default: 16). Higher values reduce artifacts but increase bake time.

Use Case: Add realistic edge wear and highlights to hard-surface models without adding geometry. Particularly useful for game assets where polygon budgets are tight.

AO Samples Override

When baking Ambient Occlusion, this setting overrides Blender's render samples to control quality independently (1 - 8192, default: 32).

Recommended Values:

• Preview: 16-32 samples
• Production: 64-128 samples
• Final/Print: 256+ samples

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9. Common Workflows

Workflow 1: Basic Game Asset

Goal: Create a single game-ready mesh with PBR textures for Unity or Unreal.

1. Model your object in Blender with Principled BSDF materials
2. Use Auto Lightmap Unwrap or manually unwrap UVs
3. Select your object
4. In EZBake settings:
   • Target: Single Object
   • Output: Join All (Game Asset)
   • Object Handling: Duplicate
   • Resolution: 2048
5. Enable channels: Base Color, Normal, Unreal ORM (or Unity equivalent)
6. Click Bake
7. Export textures and FBX to your game engine

Workflow 2: Modular Asset Library

Goal: Bake multiple objects while keeping materials separate for mix-and-match flexibility.

1. Select all objects to bake
2. In EZBake settings:
   • Target: Multi Selection
   • Output: Keep Separate
   • Object Handling: Duplicate
3. Enable desired channels
4. Click Bake
5. Each object retains its material structure with baked textures

Workflow 3: Product Visualization with Shadow Plate

Goal: Create a product render with a realistic shadow for compositing.

1. Position your product model above a ground plane
2. Set up your hero material on the product
3. Enable Shadow Catcher mode
4. Set Shadow Contrast to taste (try 0.3-0.5 for products)
5. Bake only the ground plane
6. Use the resulting shadow texture as a multiply layer in your compositor

Workflow 4: High-to-Low Poly Baking

Goal: Bake detail from a high-poly sculpt to a low-poly game mesh.

1. Create your low-poly model with clean topology
2. Unwrap UVs on the low-poly mesh
3. Set up a Principled BSDF material with your desired maps
4. Use Blender's native "Selected to Active" bake to transfer normals from high to low
5. Then use EZBake to bake out all PBR channels from the low-poly result

Workflow 5: Texture Baking for Mobile

Goal: Create ultra-optimized textures for mobile games.

1. Build your material with all details in the shader
2. Use Combined Bake mode for a single diffuse texture
3. Set Resolution to 512 or 1024
4. Optionally bake Normal and AO separately at lower resolution (256-512)
5. Export as compressed formats (PVRTC, ASTC, ETC2)

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10. Troubleshooting

Black or Empty Bakes

Symptoms: Baked textures appear completely black or show no detail.

Solutions:

• Check UV Maps: Ensure your object has at least one UV map. Use Auto Lightmap Unwrap if needed.
• Verify Material: Confirm your material uses Principled BSDF shader. Other shader types are not supported.
• Select Correct UV Map: Make sure the specified UV Map name matches your object's UV layer.
• Check UV Bounds: UVs must be within the 0-1 space. UVs outside this range may cause issues.
• Material Assigned: Verify the material is actually assigned to the mesh faces, not just in the slot.

Seams Visible in Textures

Symptoms: Visible lines or gaps appear along UV seams.

Solutions:

• Increase Margin: Set bake margin to at least 4-8 pixels for high-resolution textures.
• Check UV Overlap: Ensure UV islands don't overlap each other.
• Improve UV Layout: Reduce sharp angles and distortion in your UV unwrap.
• Use Post-Processing: Apply a dilation filter in an image editor to extend colors beyond UV borders.

Normal Map Appears Flat or Wrong

Symptoms: Baked normal map doesn't show detail or has incorrect colors.

Solutions:

• Verify Normal Input: Make sure your source material has a normal map connected to the Principled BSDF Normal input.
• Check Color Space: Normal maps must use Non-Color color space in Blender.
• Tangent Space: Ensure you're using tangent-space normals (purple/blue color), not object or world space.
• Normal Map Node: Verify any normal map nodes are set to "Tangent Space" mode.

Bake Takes Too Long

Symptoms: Baking process takes an excessive amount of time.

Solutions:

• Lower Resolution: Reduce texture resolution for testing (use 512 or 1024 instead of 4096).
• Reduce AO Samples: Lower the AO Samples Override to 16-32 for preview bakes.
• Disable Bevel: Bevel shader can be slow; disable it for test bakes.
• Reduce Bevel Samples: If using bevel, lower samples to 4-8 for testing.
• Simplify Channels: Bake only essential channels during iteration, add others later.
• Check Scene Complexity: Extremely high poly counts can slow down AO calculation.

Textures Not Applying Correctly

Symptoms: After baking, textures appear in wrong slots or with wrong settings.

Solutions:

• Check Output Mode: "Join All" creates a single new material; "Keep Separate" modifies existing materials.
• Verify Color Space: Base Color should be sRGB; technical maps (Metallic, Roughness, Normal) should be Non-Color.
• Inspect Shader Editor: Open the Shader Editor to verify texture nodes are connected correctly.
• Material Preview: Switch viewport shading to Material Preview or Rendered to see results.

Error: "Active object must be a mesh"

Solutions:

• Ensure you've selected a mesh object, not a camera, light, or empty
• Check that the active object (last selected) is a mesh
• Convert curves, text, or other object types to mesh first (Object > Convert to > Mesh)

Error: "No channels selected for baking"

Solutions:

• Enable at least one channel in the Channels section
• If using Combined Bake mode, ensure it's properly enabled

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11. Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

Q: Can I use EZBake with EEVEE render engine?

A: Most channels work with EEVEE, but Ambient Occlusion and Shadow Catcher require Cycles as they use Cycles-specific baking modes.

Q: Does EZBake work with Blender 2.8 or earlier?

A: No, EZBake requires Blender 3.6 or newer due to API changes and newer Principled BSDF features.

Q: Can I bake multiple objects at once?

A: Yes, set Target mode to "Multi Selection" and select all objects you want to bake. They can be merged into one asset or kept separate depending on your Output setting.

Q: Will EZBake work with custom shader setups?

A: EZBake specifically targets the Principled BSDF shader. Materials using other shaders or complex node setups may not bake correctly.

Technical Questions

Q: What's the difference between "Emission" and "Emission Samples"?

A: "Emission" bakes just the emission color/texture without any lighting calculation (flat output). "Emission Samples" uses the Combined bake pass to capture fully lit emission, including how it illuminates nearby surfaces.

Q: Why do my baked textures look different than the viewport?

A: Baking captures the raw channel data, not the lit result. The appearance depends on your target engine's lighting. For viewport-matching results, use Combined Bake mode.

Q: Can I bake vertex colors instead of textures?

A: No, EZBake currently only supports baking to image textures, not vertex colors.

Q: How do I save the baked textures to disk?

A: EZBake creates image datablocks in Blender. To save them:

1. Open the Shader Editor
2. Select your baked material
3. For each texture node, click the image selector
4. Go to Image menu > Save As
5. Choose format (PNG for lossless, JPG for albedo, EXR for HDR)

Q: What file formats does EZBake support for saving?

A: EZBake itself creates textures in Blender's image format. When saving, you can export as PNG, JPEG, TIFF, OpenEXR, TGA, or any format Blender supports.

Workflow Questions

Q: Should I use Duplicate or Overwrite mode?

A: Use Duplicate during development to preserve your original materials. This lets you iterate without losing your source setup. Use Overwrite only when you're ready to replace the original or need to update an existing bake.

Q: What resolution should I use for game assets?

A:

• Mobile: 512-1024
• PC/Console (Standard): 1024-2048
• Hero Assets: 2048-4096
• Cinematic/VFX: 4096-8192

Q: Can I bake transparent materials?

A: Yes, enable the Alpha channel to bake transparency. Make sure your material uses the Alpha input of the Principled BSDF or connects to the Surface Alpha socket of the Material Output.

Q: How do I bake multiple material IDs into one texture?

A: Use the "Join All (Game Asset)" output mode with "Multi Selection" or "All Materials" scope. EZBake will merge all materials into a single texture atlas.

Optimization Questions

Q: How can I reduce bake times?

A:

• Lower resolution for test bakes
• Reduce AO samples (use 16-32 instead of 128)
• Disable expensive features like Bevel during iteration
• Bake only the channels you need
• Use simpler materials during testing

Q: Do I need to bake every channel?

A: No, only bake what your target engine requires. A typical PBR game asset needs: Base Color, Normal, and either individual Metallic/Roughness/AO channels or a packed map (ORM).

Q: Can I pack custom channel combinations?

A: Currently, EZBake supports preset packed formats (Unity, Unreal, Godot, CryEngine). For custom packing, bake individual channels and combine them in an image editor like Photoshop using channel operations.

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Support & Contact

For additional support, bug reports, or feature requests, please contact:

MOUVAL LLC
5900 Balcones Drive STE 100
Austin, TX 78731

EZBake is proprietary software. Unauthorized copying or distribution is prohibited.

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Copyright © 2024 MOUVAL LLC. All rights reserved.