Bake just ONE material - Cycles

[Chic Aeon]

Now this isn't always an issue but when you get to a BIG and complex build in cycles it takes FOREVER to bake. That is fine if you are close to finished, but if you are still working on those fun little nodes to get just what you want? Not so much.

 

I am pretty sure that I could simply select the material I want baked, separate that from the rest of the joined mesh and bake JUST that material (let's say the floor) that way. I think I have done that before. I also suspect that there is a much more ELEGANT way to get this accomplished and know that you guys know just about everything (yes, shameless compliment).

 

So fess up please if you have info. I really don't need to make dinner, eat dinner AND do the dishes while my bake is doing it's thing :D   

 

Thanks a bunch.

[Drongle McMahon]

Good question. I don't know of a "proper" way to do this, as I can't find a way of toggling the rendering of individual materials or vertex groups. Hiding doesn't seem to work. But... the bake time does depend on the destination image size. So my suggestion is to add a new image with 1x1 pixel; then select that in the output image node of all the other materials you don't want to bake. Now do the bake. Hopefully it will be much faster, and the previously baked images for all those textures baked to the single pixel will still be there. Using the single pixel does work with a cube with three materials, but I can't tell whether it gives the desired speed-up with a huge object.

[Aquila Kytori]

Hi

In the node setup of the materials that you don't want to bake out have you tried disconnecting the Material Output node?

The result I get from doing that is the  materials that have been disconnected bake out black and the one material that was left connected did seem to bake out quicker.

 

[Drongle McMahon]

Aquila, what do you mean by "disconnecting"? In my node setups, they are not connected. If I deselect them, they still get baked (consistent with the manual which says baking is to the last-selected image node). If I remove them, then I get an error and no baking happens.

[Aquila Kytori]

What I meant was this :

In the first image, Bake A  i'm baking both materials :

 

In the second, Bake B, I have disconnected the Material 2 noodle connection to the Material Output node

This could be another option open to Chic untill someone explains the correct way of doing it 

[Drongle McMahon]

Oh yes. As you said, the material output node, not the output image node. I must read more carefully.

[Apple May]

Depending on how far into your project you are you could always separate the object (make your selection and hit "P"). If you have a lot of modifiers going on I wouldn't suggest it as when you join things again it can get messy.

Other then that disconnecting the nods from the material node would be your best bet that I know of.

[Chic Aeon]

Actually I THOUGHT I deleted this post right after I posted - LOL.  But thanks for looking at it. I will try disconnecting the output node and see if that is faster. I hope so! (I'll let ya know).

 

MOST of the time it isn't an issue, but when you have a whole albeit SMALL house that you are baking out it is a mess.

 

 Honestly I have a really nice FLOOR, but I can see why cycles isn't used all that often in houses. My endgame here was to make an interior with spot lighting and baked shadows. I haven't come to that part yet LOL.

 

Later note:  A little over half an hour for this bake. I am afraid to go look and see if it worked LOL.  And I have a fairly hefty machine and video card .    Geez. 

AND while I have you here ---

I see some STELLAR cycles "looking" bakes. Mine look just as good in the RENDER view, but even baking out at 500 on 1024pixel image on a large object they are less than impressive. I haven't found anyone using Blender that has OMGtheyaresobeautiful baked textures on LARGE things.  Does anyone know if this is just how it is with Blender? CAN you get glorious textures such as this? (not mine of course).

On my SMALL stuff they look this good. On the bigger stuff?  Not terribly happy. Thanks for any input.

 

And as I type this and went and found the photo AND thought and rewrote LOL my render is still less than half done and I just need to get a tiny little extra bit for a flower bed edge (sigh). Oh the joys! 

[Chic Aeon]

Well while diconnecting the output was a very elegant approach *wink*, it didn't seem faster. So I did a simple test with just a couple of materials and the time by stopwatch was exactly the same. These were two materials that went to two maps, not the combo map as in your example, Aquila, so "maybe" it makes a difference?

I also tried deleting ALL the materials from the listing so that there was ONLY the material for what I wanted to bake. Same time exactly as the other two attempts.

I did really cheat on this at the end as I had spent too much time. I did separate the flower box from the steps, put the steps on another layer (I had tried previously without doing that step and it took just as long as it was looking at the whole build on that scene -- or so it seems -- I really don't know how it all works.

Then I mapped the one "cube shaped" more or less object and just placed it on top of the floor texture in an appropriate spot ---- LOL. So I didn't have to rebake another half hour.

 

I am not going to try for an inside bake as the one that I had without lighting I didn't like at all and went back to tiling textures which looked MUCH better. Other folks seem to be having this same experience so at least I know it isn't "all" me and that helps.

 

I will just do a simple text with a light fixture I made and a cube to simulate walls. If I can get something decent, THEN I will try it in a structure.

Thanks for the help. If you solve the puzzle, let me know.