Bake Point Node

Access: Nodes > Misc > Bake Point

Using a Bake Point node to optimize textures in a scene.

The Bake Point node is a great way to optimize your scene and keep it running even when your node graph and project gets overly complex or heavy.

When you first create a Bake Point you will be asked to select the settings of the bake. The same options are displayed as when creating a Paint node. After selecting the size, bit depth and any other settings you may want to change, the Bake Point will be created. From there you can bake anything you input into the node to cache the input and keep your scene running smoother.

The Bake Point can be essential if your machine is starting to run slow, and can also speed up your workflow if you know you don't need to change any nodes that come before it.

Tip:  Geo-Channels can be used as an intermediate caching point with the Bake Point node to allow complex node sharing without the difficulty of navigating complex shared connections in the Node Graph, by exporting the current bake data to a Geo-Channel on the object. See Adding Geo-Channels to Objects and Syncing Bake Points to Geo-Channel Nodes.

Bake Point Node Inputs

Input: Bakes the input.

Bake Point Node Properties

Note:  For more information on the Add Bake Point dialog, see Add Paint/Bake Point Dialog.

Bake Point Tab

Limit Patch Baking

Color Data

Export Tab

Geo-Channel

Disk

mv $EXPORTED "[drive:][path]"

Filters Tab

Bake Point Node Workflow Examples

Node Tree Optimization with the Bake Point Node

In the example we have a heavy node graph to texture this asset. Even on a powerful computer this scene is heavy to compute. If you have a busy scene or computer that struggles to keep up, Bake Points can be great for optimizing your node tree. In the example, we are seeing the Node Graph and a nearly finished Base Color texture:

A nearly finished asset’s Node Graph.

Let’s use some Bake Nodes to optimize the BaseColours section on the left of this node tree. When you are finished with a part of your node tree, it can be good practice to use a Bake Point node to stop Mari calculating all the nodes that come before it. By doing this you can speed up your scenes.

Note:  The downside to this workflow however is you need to either deactivate the node if you want to make changes or rebake it after.

Since the base colors of this object are working and we’re just finessing the smaller details which come after it in the Node Tree then a Bake Point can be placed to the right of this Backdrop node.

By placing down a Bake Point we will get the creation UI pop up. Since the UDIMs of this texture are 4k then we want to use that size but if you want to just use it for previewing or speed up your project even more you could select a size smaller than your patches. The rest of the settings will be dependant on your project and also the Channel this node will end up being used for. Since we have color data here we don’t want to select Scalar Data on.

The Bake Point node Add Bake Point popup appears when first creating a Bake Point node.

After clicking OK the node will be created. It doesn’t bake until you plug something in and select the Bake button.

An unbaked Bake Point node appears gray on the Node Graph.

After you select an input for the Bake Point, Mari will perform a calculation, and depending on your scene this could take a while. When the calculation is done, the node will turn green to signify it has bake data inside of it that is up to date.

Once baked and up to date the Bake Point turns green.

If it has gone red that means something being plugged into it is out of date. You can either select it and click Bake again to update it, or you can shift and click multiple Bake Point nodes, right click and go to Edit > Bake Points > Update Selected to update multiple bakes at once.

When out of date the node turns red. You can update selected Bake Points by going through these menus.

When using Bake Points along your node tree you should notice your scene speeding up, especially when using a lot of nodes. Bake Points are a great tool for scene optimization.

Tip:  Geo-Channels can be used as an intermediate caching point with the Bake Point node to allow complex node sharing without the difficulty of navigating complex shared connections in the Node Graph, by exporting the current bake data to a Geo-Channel on the object. See Adding Geo-Channels to Objects and Syncing Bake Points to Geo-Channel Nodes.

Limiting Patches in a Bake Point Node

You can reduce bake time in a Bake Point node by limiting the amount of patches/UDIMs being baked by that node to only patches that require a bake.

To limit patches/UDIMs in a Bake Point node:

1. Double-click the Bake Point node to access the Node Properties.

2. Enable Limit Bake Range in the Bake Point tab.

3. Using one of the following methods, select a Patch Range:

• Enter a value into the Patch Range field. The following example selects patches 1001, 1002, and 1003:

1001-1003

• If you have a patch already selected, click the patch selection button and select Set to Current Patch Selection.

• If you have set up patch selection groups, click the patch selection button and select Set to Patch Selection Group.

Tip:  If you're not sure which patches are currently selected, click Select Patches in Range.

4. Pick a color using Background Color onto which the baked image is composited.

5. Click Bake.

The selected patches in Patch Range are baked.

Filtering Non-Destructively Using Bake Point Filters

Bake Point Filters allow you to apply a stack of filter effects, such as Gaussian blur or Emboss, to a node without baking your network to a single Paint node. In older versions of Mari, you would bake down your node graph to a Paint node to apply filters, which is a destructive workflow that prevents any upstream changes being made to procedural nodes or filters.

Bake Point filters remove the need to bake parts of your node network by applying filters to a Bake Point node cache, rather than directly to the node or network of nodes you’re working with, so you retain the option to alter them later on. When an out-of-date Bake Point with filters enabled is updated, its filter stack is reapplied to the newly baked result automatically.

1. Add a Bake Point node down stream of your node network and connect the node to the network.

2. Double-click the Bake Point node to open its Properties panel.

3. Click Bake to process all the upstream nodes in the network and cache the output to disk.

Note:  Bake Point filters apply to whatever patches you’re using on your mesh, so if you want the filters to only apply to a particular UDIM tile of your asset then you can specify this in the Limit Patch Baking section of the node properties. See Limiting Patches in a Bake Point Node for more information.

The Bake Point node turns green when the bake is complete.



4. In the Properties panel, click the Filters tab, and then click Edit Filters to add a Bake Point filter.

The Apply Bake Point Filters dialog is displayed.



5. Click Add Filter to display a list of available filters you can apply to the Bake Point node.

6. Select a filter to apply it to the Bake Point. In this example, a Gaussian blur and an Emboss filter are applied.



Note:  Some filters, such as Emboss and Sharpen, are snapshot-based preview filters that are applied to a snapshot of the canvas, rather than the output of the Bake Point, and may not look as expected. Applying these filters displays a warning if they are added to a filter stack containing non-preview filters such as Gaussian.

7. Use the controls associated with each filter to adjust the appearance of the filter. For example, you can increase the Radius of the blur applied by a Gaussian filter.

Filters are applied from the top of the stack down, in the order that they are listed. In the example, this would mean that the Emboss filter is applied to the canvas after the blur is applied. If the order was reversed, the result would be very different because the embossing would occur before the blur.

8. You can enable and disable individual filters in a stack using the toggle adjacent to the filter name or enable and disable the entire stack using the Preview toggle.



9. Click Apply when you've finished editing your filter stack.

Bake Point nodes containing a filter stack display a stack icon so you can see at a glance where filters applied in the network.



10. You can incorporate changes in nodes upstream and downstream of Bake Point nodes by opening the Bake Point node's Properties and clicking Bake or by right-clicking a node in the network, selecting Edit > Bake Points, and then selecting the required action.

Related Nodes

• Paint Node
• Backdrop Node
• Sticky Note Node
• Geo-Channel Node