Cycles Baker

Extension for Blender 4.4+ for baking pairs of high/low-poly objects. Github LINK

Installation:

Install Cycles Baker as *Extension** from Blender Preferences > Get Extensions > Install From Disk (drop-down menu at the very top right corner) > find place where you saved CyclesBaker zip file

Location:

• Right Sidebar > Tools > Cycles Baker tab

Usage:

• use 'Add Pair' button and pick low-poly mesh and high-poly object (or collection)
• Add needed baking passes (e.g. Diffuse, AO, Opacity, Depth etc)
• Press 'Bake'

It supported passes:

• Material (Diffuse),
• Normal,
• Opacity.
• Ambient Occlusion (and thickness),
• Curvature,
• Position,
• Depth (not 100% accurate, but good enough for most cases - like scalp masks),

It supports baking from various types of high-poly objects:

• Mesh,
• Hair,
• Collection Instance,
• Groups of objects,
• Text,
• Metaball,
• Others...

Other features:

• Ability customize to preview front ray distance
• Option to add and use custom cage object
• AA option (it bakes image in higher resolution, then scale it down to get AA effect)
• Generate preview material with baked textures with one click
• Option for partial re-bake (partial texture update for selected high/low-poly pair) - no need to re-bake all objects
• Built-in auto-updater
• Channel Mixing (requires Hair Tool to work - maybe in the future it will be available without it)