How to Use Kiln

Basic Workflow

1. Organise your objects
   - Put all objects you want to bake into a single collection
   - Select that collection in the Outliner
2. Choose your maps
   - In the Kiln panel (View3D > Sidebar > Kiln tab)
   - Open the "Maps" section
   - Check the maps you need (Color, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, Alpha)
3. Set resolutions
   - Open the "Resolution" section
   - Each map has its own resolution (128px to 4096px)
4. Pick a UV method
   - Smart UV Project — automatic, good for most cases
   - Existing Seams — uses seams you've already marked
   - Existing UV — uses a UV map already on your objects (specify the name)
5. Click "Bake Kiln"
   - Kiln creates a [YourCollection]_Kiln collection (pink in the Outliner)
   - All objects get baked PBR materials with proper textures
6. Export
   - Select the _Kiln collection
   - File > Export > glTF 2.0 (.glb)
   - Your asset is ready for Godot, Unity, or any GLB-compatible engine

Using the Validator

Before baking, use the Validator panel (Kiln > Validator tab) to check for common issues:

• Unapplied transforms — fix with Ctrl+A > All Transforms
• Non-Principled materials — these will be skipped during bake
• Missing materials — objects without any material assigned

The validator tells you if your collection is ready to bake. Fix any warnings before proceeding.

Re-Baking

Just click "Bake Kiln" again. Kiln clears and repopulates the _Kiln collection automatically. Any export settings you've configured on the _Kiln collection (like GLB export presets) are preserved.

Tips

• Start with 1 sample for test bakes — increase to 64-128 for final quality
• Use "Apply Modifiers" to bake the final look (including Geometry Nodes)
• "Scale Small Islands" prevents tiny UV islands from causing bake artifacts — leave it on
• Linked materials from external libraries are handled automatically (Kiln makes local copies)

Addon Preferences

Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Kiln to customise:

• Object prefix — prefix added to baked objects (default: mesh_)
• Map names — rename "Color" to "Albedo", "Roughness" to "Rough", etc.
• Bake samples — Cycles samples for baking (default: 128)
• Bake margin — texture margin to prevent seam bleeding
• UV settings — Smart UV angle, island margin, minimum island size