Bake High Poly Mesh to Low poly

[diet-commission]

I'm having trouble finding an up-to-date version on the process of baking a high poly model to a low poly model. Could someone please refer me to some information on best practices. Also, is it possible to bake redshift materials and lighting onto the model?

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi diet-commission,

This might have several options.

Use the Polygon Reduction or the Remesh option.

But I believe, your question points more into a low mesh and and displacement combination.
https://help.maxon.net/c4d/2025/en-us/Default.htm#html/TBAKETEXTURE-ID_BAKEOPTIONS.html?TocPath=Object%2520Manager%257CObject%2520Menu%257CBake%2520Material%257C_____3

Scroll down to Displacement

All the best

[diet-commission]

Thank you Dr. Sassi. I'm having good results with generating Normals using the bake material tag but I'm not sure what's wrong creating my AO and displacement maps.

I'm not able to attach images so I'll try explaining. The high poly has UV's where I baked that information onto a low poly plane which has enough segments for displacement. The normal map has a nicely laid out texture which are vents, fans but the displacement map has those elements broken down into numerous smaller pieces for some reason. The AO is just a black texture.

I'm also referencing this video tutorial on how to get my baked maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcJcIqZRfsI&t=92s

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi diet-commision,

Please have a look for Displacement and Normal in this file
CV4_2025_drs_25_STbd_01.c4d

While AO can't work for this process, given the flat plane, you can explore this here, baked to the original object, but where would the AO information sit for the "vertical" part in the "A" (see model)?
CV4_2025_drs_25_STbd_02.c4d

I use OpenEXR files in linear and 32bit-float per channel. Baking here is done using the Standard Render Mode!

Please compare the settings you have with the provided files. Will that help? Otherwise, take that as a step one, and I move on with more data from your side until you get what you need as far as possible. Having said that here are a few notes:

AO was a fake to get a sense of Global Illumination way back in time. It responds only to geometry. Even if you place a bright light in a corner of the object, it will show dark AO effects. Global Illumination renders this more naturally, and adding AO to a Global Illumination render is like adding most of those effects twice to the visuals, which might defeat the intention of the whole aesthetic.

I'm strongly biased here (I know ); if we talk about anything towards photorealistic, whatever that might be (realistic, photorealistic, Hyperrealistic, the bandwidth is rather wide. But of course, if your work needs it, then it needs to be calculated after the displacement of the baked object; it can be stored like an XYZ Displacement can.

I would suggest baking to avoid low-level image formats like in the youTube source you shared; thanks for the timeshare, so I do not have to go through this.

I like to help based on project files, which usually give a clear problem, and then, in return, I can hopefully share a working file and, if needed, an explanation. This has proven over more than two decades the best working way. In the end, I would like you to feel savvy about this.

Cheers