Baking maps from high resolution models about awesomebump

[kmkolasinski]

For unwrapped UVs it should be easy as one know where to put each normal on texture, but for not unwrapped mesh I don't even know where to start...
There are another drawbacks:

1. AB 3D view is totally not optimized, when you enable tessellation it dramatically slows down, high resolution meshes will probably crash this poor program :)
2. AB is free alternative for commercial programs, but xNormal is also free and it does it already, so why do you come with this request? What is the motivation for that?

xNormal seems to only run on Windows, Knald runs on Windows and Mac but costs $200 for the studio license. Blender can also do this, but I thought that it'd be neat to have this as part of a workflow.:)

[kmkolasinski]

Ok, I understand now. As I said when the model has already prepared UVs this should be easy. I will think about this.

[Hevedy]

You can paint over the 3D model and bake the maps in textures on Blender.
I think that is very different to the AB purpose.
Anyway, if you decide add this, will be better divide the AB in different apps or different parts.
(Texture Maps editor & generator | Texture Edit | Models Maps Bake | Model viewer )

[kmkolasinski]

Don't worry, I just said that I will "think" about this :)
I would like to keep AB as simple as possible. The idea of AB is image processing nothing else, so I put efforts to optimize this part of the code. Code responsible for 3D rendering is totaly not optimized (e.g. tessellation cracks ;) ) so as I said before high resolution meshes may be a problem. BUT: If normal baking does not require huge amount of work, and if it will not destroy the logical structure of the program, this functionality may be added, why not. (recently I've added a new feature - Low Frequency Filter, as a "feature request" from the user, I didn't have this tool in my plans but it took me one hour to implement... -- I have some experience with baking textures from meshes, so adding a small button e.g. "recalculate normals from mesh" would be a nice feature in AB).

Thats why I said I will think about this: I need to estimate the effort which is required to make such feature to work with AB or if this really necessary as Blender already has this feature.

[Hevedy]

OKay but for what like this @Terrance8D ?
Only for Normals or for (AO+Normals+Displacement+Albedo+Vertex Colors) ?

[kmkolasinski]

No more than normals. I have other plans for future releases.

[Hevedy]

@kmkolasinski "I have other plans for future releases." that sound badass... :)

[kmkolasinski]

Ops, of course I meant: I have already plans (TODO list) what features add or improve in AB, so I want to do them first, because I would be nice to finish what I've started already rather than starting another things. Sorry for confusion :)

[Hevedy]

@kmkolasinski no no, badass as say "with what going to surprise me the next time" ;)
More or less like a joke, sorry for the confusion xD

[kmkolasinski]

Ok, I did the reasearch and the baking normal map feature is no possible with AB. The AB pipeline just does not fit with some kind of calculation. I can't do this easily.