MATRICXBAKE

CONTENTS

What's Inside

SECTION 01

Overview

SECTION 02

Install and Open

MatricX Bake 1.7.8 is provided in two ZIP formats. Install one of them, not both, and keep the ZIP compressed when installing.

Supported Blender Versions

Open the tool from 3D View > Sidebar > MatricX Bake.

The Extension asks you to approve two permissions: Network, used only by the optional Download MinistryOfFlat button, and Files, for writing baked maps and exported assets to your output folder.

Clean Upgrade

1. Disable older MatricX Bake versions.
2. Remove old copies from Blender add-ons or extension folders.
3. Install the 1.7.8 ZIP.
4. Restart Blender if an older module was already loaded.

SECTION 03

Main Workflow

The panel is numbered in the order you work: 1 Prepare UVs > 2 Bake Maps > 3 Decals > 4 Combine > 5 Final Bake > 6 Export. Steps 3–6 are optional.

Basic Steps

1. Select the object or collection to bake.
2. Use Prepare Mesh if UVs are missing or need a shared atlas.
3. Select maps under Material Bake.
4. Choose Output, Map Packing, Objects, and Performance settings.
5. Click Check, then Bake.
6. Click Setup Baked Material to apply the baked maps. In a Selected, Collection or Visible scope it sets up every object in the scope.

SECTION 04

Prepare Mesh and UVs

Good UVs are required for clean maps. A procedural material can look correct without usable UVs, so MatricX Bake audits the actual bake layout before starting.

Auto-Fix Bake UVs

Keep Auto-Fix Bake UVs enabled to detect missing UVs, zero-area faces, stacked or overlapping faces, and coordinates outside the 0–1 tile. When the active layout is unsafe, the add-on creates a dedicated MX_BakeUV and leaves the artist's original UV layer intact. Setup Baked Material reads the bake manifest and uses that exact UV map.

MinistryOfFlat

Advanced UV mode can use MinistryOfFlat_Release.zip. Its console executable is Windows-only, so on macOS and Linux the panel hides the MinistryOfFlat options and Advanced UV Unwrap uses Blender's built-in unwrap. The material, decal, final-bake, packing, and export workflows are fully available on every system.

If the configured zip exists, the panel shows MinistryOfFlat installed. If not, the download button appears. Blender's Online Access preference must be enabled before downloading.

• Padding: Adds spacing when fitting UVs into the 0–1 tile.
• Triangulate Temp: Sends a triangulated temporary copy to MinistryOfFlat.
• Weld Temp: Lets MinistryOfFlat weld duplicate vertices internally.
• Extra Flags: Optional command line flags for advanced users.

MatricX Pro Trim Sheets

Faces that use a MatricX Pro trim material (Atlas or Mesh mode) keep their exact place on the trim sheet: Prepare UVs unwraps only the other faces, and the panel shows how many trim faces are in the bake scope. Use a higher bake resolution for sharp trim detail.

Every bake step — Bake, Setup Baked Material, Final Bake and decals — hands your own active UV map back afterwards, so trims never need to be applied again.

SECTION 05

Material Bake Maps

MatricX Bake can bake both clean PBR channels and extra utility maps.

Bake Lit Color

Enable Bake Lit Color to also bake a separate LitColor map with your scene lights and shadows. Base Color stays clean, so the material can still be rebuilt correctly from the maps.

SECTION 06

One Texture Set for Multiple Objects

Texture Set Modes

Atlas UVs

For Pack Existing Islands and Rebuild Shared Atlas, MatricX Bake writes a named UV map like MX_Combined_AtlasUV to each source object. The baked material uses that exact UV map.

MatricX Pro and Procedural Coordinates

MatricX Pro imperfection layers frequently use Object or Generated coordinates inside nested node groups. Joining several source objects changes the temporary object's bounds and normally shifts or stretches those masks. MatricX Bake stores each source object's original procedural coordinates and substitutes them only on temporary copied materials, so dirt, wear, noise, bump, and layered Mix Shader masks keep their original placement. Source materials and node groups are not modified.

Each part's own transform is kept as well. Image textures with Box projection (such as MatricX Pro's grunge), MatricX Pro's scale-safe coordinates, Vector Transform nodes, Texture Coordinate > Normal and Object Info > Location are evaluated with that part's own rotation, scale and mirroring, and the parts are joined in world space. A rotated, scaled or mirrored part no longer changes how the others bake.

MatricX Dirt and Edge Wear mix complete shader closures, while a normal PBR texture set is rebuilt with one Principled shader. MatricX Bake applies channel-consistent MatricX flattening compensation so Dirt remains present without replacing broad metal regions with brown dielectric color, and Edge Wear does not become stronger than the source material. Other Mix Shader materials keep the standard linear conversion.

Modifiers and Mixed UV Layers

One Texture Set normalizes UV-layer names and order on temporary copies before joining. Negligible zero-area CAD or boolean residue no longer rejects an otherwise usable atlas. Material and Final Bake use the source topology that owns the shared atlas; render modifiers stay enabled on the original receiver objects. This prevents Bevel, Subdivision, Mirror, Array, and Geometry Nodes output from adding inherited UV overlaps that can overwrite another object's atlas pixels. Original mesh UVs and modifier settings are not destructively changed.

SECTION 07

Map Packing

Map Packing combines AO, Roughness, and Metallic into one Non-Color image for game-engine workflows.

SECTION 08

Setup Baked Material

After baking, click Setup Baked Material to create a preview material from the baked maps.

• Base Color connects as sRGB.
• Utility maps connect as Non-Color.
• Normal maps use a Normal Map node.
• Height maps connect through a Bump node.
• Opacity maps connect to Alpha and enable material transparency.
• For one texture set, the material is applied to all objects in the current bake scope.
• For one texture set, the material uses the named shared atlas UV map.
• In a Selected, Collection or Visible scope (Per Object), every object in the scope is set up with its own maps.
• Once the .blend is saved, the baked maps are stored relative to it, so the project can move to another folder or computer.

Apply AO to Base Color (Blender Preview Only)

Off by default. Turn it on to see contact shadows in Blender's viewport. Final Bake and Game Asset Export always leave it out, because game engines apply the AO map themselves.

Setup Baked Material can read individual maps or packed maps. If individual AO/Roughness/Metallic maps are missing, it can split the packed map channels and use them instead.

Glass Materials

Glass and refraction shaders can be baked into practical texture maps, but baked PBR maps cannot perfectly recreate live refraction, caustics, or transparent ray depth. For closest visual matching, bake Base Color, Roughness, Normal and Opacity, and enable Bake Lit Color.

Glass exports through one portable Principled shader with transmission, IOR and tint. MatricX Pro's Tinted and Scope Glass keep their tint. View-dependent chromatic and refraction colour (Chromatic and Iridescent Glass) is skipped for Base Color and Lit Color, because it cannot transfer faithfully between renderers.

SECTION 09

Decals, Final Bake, and Export

Bake Scene Decals

The active mesh is the UV target. Decal bake uses the main resolution, margin, output, and device settings.

The panel shows how many decals will be baked before you start.

One Texture Set Decals

When Texture Set is set to One Texture Set, decal baking targets the full bake scope instead of only the active mesh. The add-on creates a temporary combined receiver, activates the shared atlas UV, and bakes decals into the same texture space as the shared material maps.

Set the receiver meshes through the bake scope (for example a Collection) and parent the decals to the receivers — MatricX Pro does this when you place a decal. The decals may sit in the same collection as the receivers: they are never treated as receivers, and Material Bake, Setup Baked Material and Final Bake skip them. Shared outputs use names like MX_Combined_decal_color.png and MX_Combined_decal_mask.png.

Combine Decal & Material

Combine uses the decal mask for every channel and blends Base Color, Roughness, Metallic, and Normal into a new PBR material.

For One Texture Set, do not choose an individual target mesh. Combine Set & Apply to All reads the shared manifest, resolves material and decal folders automatically, uses the named atlas UV, and assigns one combined material to every receiver mesh. It works without an active object. Decals can occupy only a few atlas regions; every receiver still needs the shared material so those regions appear on the correct parts.

Combine creates the live PBR material. Run Bake Final Maps for Entire Set afterward when flattened combined texture files are required. In One Texture Set mode, Final Bake also uses every receiver in the bake scope and does not require an active mesh.

Final Bake

Final Bake flattens the current material into a simplified texture set. Use it after combining decals or when exporting a simplified game-ready result.

Final Normal Strength controls the Normal Map node in the generated final material and defaults to 0.4. This keeps normal-driven lighting from washing out the apparent Base Color or decal appearance. It does not weaken or modify the saved normal texture.

Game Asset Export

Game Asset Export packages the model, its textures, and asset_manifest.json.

• FBX or GLB, with presets for Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot or Generic.
• The exported material wires Base Color, Roughness, Metallic and Normal straight into the shader so game engines pick them up. GLB also carries AO in its Occlusion slot.
• The baked UV map becomes UV channel 0, which game engines read.
• Every baked map, including AO and Height, is copied to the Textures folder.

SECTION 10

Troubleshooting

SECTION 11

Cross-Platform Notes

MatricX Bake uses Blender and Python APIs only: one build for Windows, macOS, and Linux. GPU baking (CUDA, OptiX, HIP, Metal or oneAPI) depends on Blender, the OS, hardware, and drivers; CPU always works as the fallback.

• Baked maps are stored relative to the saved .blend, so projects move between computers and systems.
• Object names that Windows reserves (CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1–9, LPT1–9) get an underscore in file names, so maps save on every system.
• MinistryOfFlat (Advanced UV Unwrap) is Windows-only; its options are hidden on macOS and Linux.

SECTION 12

What’s New in 1.7