Topic: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

A nice add-on for creating light maps of entire scenes (source: BlenderNation) :
http://code.google.com/p/blender-addons-by-mifth/

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

Nice plugin!

We have something similar for 3dsmax too ( Flatiron - http://www.texturebaking.com/ ), but it's not free.
I wish there where more open source 3dsmax plugin developers around smile

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

That's why I like Blender wink

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

Im hardly a pro at blender, but why is a plugin needed for entire scenes..so blender by default doesn't 'light' entire scene when you apply a map, and without plugin makes it hard to do that ?

When you are on a budget things can get iffy, and while its wonderful that blender exists for those with few funds, Im also finding that I really like Truespace 7.61 beta8 ( has never crashed ), which I find can do everything ( or very close to it) blender/max can, and a lot more.

If I could wish for a new feature for maratis, I think it would be to ease the restriction on needing blender to finalize a export for other modelers to avoid the  blender necessity. I think that holds maratis back a lot.

thx
gm
P.S.- I've seen some amazing plugins  for max that don't exist in such a form for blender, even if they aren't free, so while free is nice, its not always optimal wink I think I've seen a forest system plugin for max that i'd LOVE, and nothing like it for blender. That's what I'm getting at,,things like that.

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

gamemaker wrote:

Im hardly a pro at blender, but why is a plugin needed for entire scenes..so blender by default doesn't 'light' entire scene when you apply a map, and without plugin makes it hard to do that ?

The script makes one Texture Atlas for all objects. In other words the script unwraps entire scene into one UV. 

gamemaker wrote:

When you are on a budget things can get iffy, and while its wonderful that blender exists for those with few funds, Im also finding that I really like Truespace 7.61 beta8 ( has never crashed ), which I find can do everything ( or very close to it) blender/max can, and a lot more.

I love blender it does everything I need and not only that programs like "Truespace", "Milkshape" and 3DSMax are not cross platform. 


gamemaker wrote:

If I could wish for a new feature for maratis, I think it would be to ease the restriction on needing blender to finalize a export for other modelers to avoid the  blender necessity. I think that holds maratis back a lot.


gamemaker wrote:

P.S.- I've seen some amazing plugins  for max that don't exist in such a form for blender, even if they aren't free, so while free is nice, its not always optimal wink I think I've seen a forest system plugin for max that i'd LOVE, and nothing like it for blender. That's what I'm getting at,,things like that.

I think what your really trying to say is that you dont like blender. I feel the same about 3DSMax and Photoshop!!!! wink

Last edited by zester (2012-12-31 23:27:08)

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

Blender tries to hard to be an everything tool......yet ain't really good at anything. Animating in blender is a p.i.t.a., the sculpting is goofy, and the save system is not intuitive at all. I know, Yo Frankie was made with it. I can show you thousands of mods made with Milkshape. Milkshape, Fragmotion, Pacemaker---all are intended for one purpose only---to create models for games. Blender was an internal artist tool, that was released for the linux guys many years ago. 


It hasn't changed much....still an art tool, not a modeling program for games

Last edited by Wrapscallion (2013-01-01 15:29:52)

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

I agree that Blender is trying to do too much things, but I find modeling really simple and powerful, I was originally a 3dsmax user and would never go back. Blender animation system is a bit complex to use, and from my experience texture painting is a bit buggy, but I find the sculpting tools really great. We have the chance to have multiple free 3d softwares available, the best is to use each one for what it's doing the best.

What I'd like to see is an exemple of this Blender addon to bake lighting for a Maratis level.
Someone also talked about a lightmap software called Giles : http://www.frecle.net/index.php?show=giles.screenshots
looks interesting too.

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

I am playing with the  TextureAtlas script right now, it works if your using the proper combined versions of blender and the script, for me it was Blender 2.63.0 and TextureAtlas 0.14 other combinations ether didnt work or crashed.

Ill post a tutorial and example hopefully sometime today.

It doesnt really require a tutorial to use as its only a single button click and then bake, but there are 3 or 4 options you need
to set, and the video tutorial ui is an older version of the TextureAtlas script and the video is just really blury.

You will need  a image editing program like gimp or photoshop to convert white to transparent

In gimp its    Layer --> Transparency --> Color to Alpha

Before Color to Alpha
http://i50.tinypic.com/bvl7s.png

After
http://i45.tinypic.com/3481xqt.png

Last edited by zester (2013-01-01 20:00:00)

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

@Zester, It took me a while to figure it out, but tweaking the default UV window of blender will cause the "something went wrong" problem. if you don't tweak the window, it works fine on 2.65a  (so just create another layout if you need uv mapping and it's alright)

@Anael, Giles gives great results however it is ALOT of extra work (importing/exporting/managing textures names, re-assigning everything, etc), and render time (even preview renders) are quite long also.
Well, that's still an alternative for those who can't stand blender

But now honestly with the Atlas plugin there's no reason to look somewhere else, lately i've done alot of tests with Texture Atlas plugin and yeah, it's just awesome.

There's only one thing that kill your workflow : Texture paths (for spec and normal maps), i definitely can't find a good way to organize everything in a manner that  you don't have to edit anything

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

zester wrote:
gamemaker wrote:

Im hardly a pro at blender, but why is a plugin needed for entire scenes..so blender by default doesn't 'light' entire scene when you apply a map, and without plugin makes it hard to do that ?

The script makes one Texture Atlas for all objects. In other words the script unwraps entire scene into one UV. 

gamemaker wrote:

When you are on a budget things can get iffy, and while its wonderful that blender exists for those with few funds, Im also finding that I really like Truespace 7.61 beta8 ( has never crashed ), which I find can do everything ( or very close to it) blender/max can, and a lot more.

I love blender it does everything I need and not only that programs like "Truespace", "Milkshape" and 3DSMax are not cross platform. 


gamemaker wrote:

If I could wish for a new feature for maratis, I think it would be to ease the restriction on needing blender to finalize a export for other modelers to avoid the  blender necessity. I think that holds maratis back a lot.


gamemaker wrote:

P.S.- I've seen some amazing plugins  for max that don't exist in such a form for blender, even if they aren't free, so while free is nice, its not always optimal wink I think I've seen a forest system plugin for max that i'd LOVE, and nothing like it for blender. That's what I'm getting at,,things like that.

I think what your really trying to say is that you dont like blender. I feel the same about 3DSMax and Photoshop!!!! wink

What I think about blender is irrelevant actually, and the fact I was trying to get at, which I stated I thought pretty clearly, were that maratis IS held back imho, due to its insistence on blender finalization. Max is the only tool atm that has someone working on it ( only if you have the very recent version, everyone else is out of luck: I get why, authors time is limited, etc..,), so short of blender and max, you are out of luck,,unless you don't mind holding your nose and using blender as the final 'tool'. I"d rather not wink

cu
gm
wink

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

gamemaker wrote:
zester wrote:
gamemaker wrote:

Im hardly a pro at blender, but why is a plugin needed for entire scenes..so blender by default doesn't 'light' entire scene when you apply a map, and without plugin makes it hard to do that ?

The script makes one Texture Atlas for all objects. In other words the script unwraps entire scene into one UV. 

gamemaker wrote:

When you are on a budget things can get iffy, and while its wonderful that blender exists for those with few funds, Im also finding that I really like Truespace 7.61 beta8 ( has never crashed ), which I find can do everything ( or very close to it) blender/max can, and a lot more.

I love blender it does everything I need and not only that programs like "Truespace", "Milkshape" and 3DSMax are not cross platform. 


gamemaker wrote:

If I could wish for a new feature for maratis, I think it would be to ease the restriction on needing blender to finalize a export for other modelers to avoid the  blender necessity. I think that holds maratis back a lot.


gamemaker wrote:

P.S.- I've seen some amazing plugins  for max that don't exist in such a form for blender, even if they aren't free, so while free is nice, its not always optimal wink I think I've seen a forest system plugin for max that i'd LOVE, and nothing like it for blender. That's what I'm getting at,,things like that.

I think what your really trying to say is that you dont like blender. I feel the same about 3DSMax and Photoshop!!!! wink

What I think about blender is irrelevant actually, and the fact I was trying to get at, which I stated I thought pretty clearly, were that maratis IS held back imho, due to its insistence on blender finalization. Max is the only tool atm that has someone working on it ( only if you have the very recent version, everyone else is out of luck: I get why, authors time is limited, etc..,), so short of blender and max, you are out of luck,,unless you don't mind holding your nose and using blender as the final 'tool'. I"d rather not wink

cu
gm
wink

My mistake, I was under the impression that You and Wrapscallion were hijacking the thread and going off topic because you wanted to inform us all on how much you dislike blender.

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

It's not a matter of disliking blender, it ( for me) is pointing out other choices. smile Also---blender is not easy,especially not for beginners.

Last edited by Wrapscallion (2013-01-05 07:02:50)

Re: Add-on for Blender : bake light maps for entire scene

Quick Tip: When using TextureAtlas or Baking Ambient Occlusion in general. If you notice that bakeing just stops mid process or your getting "Streaking" you need to scale your model to a larger size.