garageCube

Hello,

First of all, thanks for that massive update of your excellent software.

My question is about the Surface3D, as mentioned in the tutorial, we can input a texture layer to the Surface.
The type of the textured layer used is an Ambient Occlusion (AO) exported as a jpeg file.

So, is it possible to bake another type of texture like Normal map, Diffuse, Shadow etc. ?
If yes, should I bake it in a single file from my 3D application software (I use Blender) or in multiple files and let's say merge them in MadMapper?

Thanks in advance.

There's only 1 input texture per mesh, so baking normal maps wouldn't be of any help - regarding normals -, they will just display as a diffuse texture.
I baked the ambiant occlusion to add some definition to the mesh, since shadows can be generated in realtime.

Maybe in the future, if many people use the 3d surfaces in MM, we'll add multi texturing and/or physically based shading.

For your case, I'd suggest baking all your texture data into one single file (= full render baking), Shadows +AO + Diffuse

Thank you for you quick answer.
I hope I will not be alone using this technique.

Ok for your explanation, but if I bake all my textures, adding light into MM will simulate a light that won't match with my initial scene
(except if I put it the same place), and moving the light into MM won't do the trick. Am I wrong?

Sorry for that question into the question, but theses new features are crazy, and I really want to know the capabilities and limitations.

if you want realtime shadows, don't bake them ...