Baked and Wooden Sculpts:

[PeterCanessa Oh]

Difference in sculpts?  Do you mean a difference between normal and sculpted primitives (prims)? If so ...

• You make 'a' sculpted prim in an external program, and import it into SL complete.  There is also mesh, which you can consider as a 'super' sculpted prim.  Sculpted prims, and epecially mesh objects, can be much more complex than a normal prim.
• The big difference is that once you've imported your sculpted prim you can't change anything but its size.  The advantage of normal prims is the simplicity and flexibility that they offer.
• It is easiest to texture mesh objects as long as you design their UV map with that in mind.  Texturing normal prims is easy and offers a lot of options.  Sculpted prims can be very hard to texture unless you are very careful while designing them.  In theory there's no difference in how realistic their textures will look but sculpts and meshes will let you make much better shoes.
• Unless you are already a 3D computer designer you'll have a much steeper learning curve with sculpts/meshes.  Meshes, however, are THE way things are done in almost any computer environment so the skills are transferable.  It costs L$ to import each sculpt and mesh.  Beyond that the pros/cons discussion is huge, contentious and never-ending.  They are different tools for different jobs
• There is no difference in wearing them, sizing is - possibly - easier with normal prims, look should be better with sculpts/meshes if you make them right.

I recommend building classes at NCI, Caledon Oxbridge or another good in-world helper organisation.

 

Edit: Alright, so you're really asking about the difference between textured and untextured sculpts.  But the 'plywood' sculpt ISN'T untextured, it has the plywood texture applied to it instead of any custom one.  Similarly, even a "completely-untextured" prim has the 'blank' texture applied.  If you want a picture frame is it easier to start with one that is empty or has a sample picture in it already?  Usual answer - it makes no difference because you don't use the picture anyway.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

Difference in sculpts?  Do you mean a difference between normal and sculpted primitives (prims)? If so ...

• You make 'a' sculpted prim in an external program, and import it into SL complete.  There is also mesh, which you can consider as a 'super' sculpted prim.  Sculpted prims, and epecially mesh objects, can be much more complex than a normal prim.
• The big difference is that once you've imported your sculpted prim you can't change anything but its size.  The advantage of normal prims is the simplicity and flexibility that they offer.
• It is easiest to texture mesh objects as long as you design their UV map with that in mind.  Texturing normal prims is easy and offers a lot of options.  Sculpted prims can be very hard to texture unless you are very careful while designing them.  In theory there's no difference in how realistic their textures will look but sculpts and meshes will let you make much better shoes.
• Unless you are already a 3D computer designer you'll have a much steeper learning curve with sculpts/meshes.  Meshes, however, are THE way things are done in almost any computer environment so the skills are transferable.  It costs L$ to import each sculpt and mesh.  Beyond that the pros/cons discussion is huge, contentious and never-ending.  They are different tools for different jobs
• There is no difference in wearing them, sizing is - possibly - easier with normal prims, look should be better with sculpts/meshes if you make them right.

I recommend building classes at NCI, Caledon Oxbridge or another good in-world helper organisation.

 

Edit: Alright, so you're really asking about the difference between textured and untextured sculpts.  But the 'plywood' sculpt ISN'T untextured, it has the plywood texture applied to it instead of any custom one.  Similarly, even a "completely-untextured" prim has the 'blank' texture applied.  If you want a picture frame is it easier to start with one that is empty or has a sample picture in it already?  Usual answer - it makes no difference because you don't use the picture anyway.

[Lindal Kidd]

I haven't heard those terms before, but from context...a wooden sculpt would be just the sculpt map, or a prim the map is applied to, without any other texturing.  It would look like plywood until you apply a texture to it.  A baked sculpt would have the texture already applied, one more step done for you.

Applying textures to sculpties can be frustrating, so that's why some people offer "baked" sculpts.

It sounds as if you are contemplating buying at least some pre-made parts, or possibly even a BIAB...a "business in a box" with a ton of ready made content.  I recommend making your product entirely from scratch, instead.  Pre-made parts or shoes can be found everywhere, and there will be nothing to distinguish your products from the hordes of lookalikes out there.

Making sculpts requires that you acquire some skills with a 3D modeling program outside of SL, such as Blender, Maya, or LightWave 3D.  Blender is free.

The coming thing in shoes is Mesh.  This also requires modeling in a program outside SL.  You might want to learn to make Mesh shoes.

EDIT:  My guess is that you CAN'T apply textures to a baked sculpty...the texture has already been chosen for you.  If you choose to use another texture and the object will allow it, the situation is exactly the same as for an untextured (wooden) sculpt.

[Sea Warcliffe]

The difference between a sculpt map offered with "baked textures" or sometimes "shadow maps" is that some vendors sell the sculpt maps only, and some sell the sculpt maps with a seperate greyscale texture file included (the "bake")  that you can either use as a texture in world and just tint it, the "bake" will put the shadows in the right places OR you can download the baked texture and use it as an overlay in a program like Gimp, Paint.Net or Photoshop. So you could, say, put the bake shadow texture as a layer over silk, or brocade, or wood. When used in-world it will give the sculpt more depth if done right.

If you are just going to tint the baked texture - its not difficult to use at all.

If the bake is done well and you use a program to combine the bake with a good texture the results can be very realistic.

It should make no difference to the customer in regards to use because you are selling them a finished product.