Texture Baking & Rendering Flashcards
7 cards from real 3D Texturing practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Texture Baking & Rendering flashcards as text
What is a world-space position map primarily used for in game engine shader workflows?
Answer: Allowing shaders to use 3D world position data for effects like gradient masks and VFX
Position maps encode each pixel's 3D world position in RGB channels, enabling shaders to drive effects based on height, location, or depth in world space.
What does 'exploding' a mesh mean in the context of texture baking?
Answer: Separating mesh parts by moving them apart so they don't interfere during baking
Exploding separates overlapping mesh components so adjacent high-poly parts don't cast incorrect shadows or ray interference onto neighboring low-poly sections during baking.
What is the most common power-of-two texture resolution used when baking game asset textures?
Answer: 2048x2048
2048x2048 (2K) is the most widely adopted game texture resolution, balancing visual fidelity with memory budget for the majority of mid-to-hero asset types.
What is a 'shadow terminator' artifact in the context of normal map baking?
Answer: A jagged or incorrect shadow boundary from geometric shading normal mismatch
Shadow terminator artifacts occur when the low-poly's shading normals don't match its actual geometric surface, creating visible incorrect shadow boundaries under lighting.
What is the purpose of a bent normal map in a physically based shading workflow?
Answer: Encoding the average unoccluded ambient light direction per texel for accurate AO shading
Bent normal maps store the average direction of unoccluded ambient rays per texel, enabling more accurate environment light sampling and ambient occlusion effects.
What does 'Mikk tangent space' refer to in the context of normal mapping?
Answer: A standardized tangent basis algorithm ensuring consistent normal map results across tools
Mikk tangent space is a standardized algorithm for computing tangent basis vectors, ensuring that normal maps baked in one application display correctly when rendered in another.
Which rendering technique pre-calculates global illumination for static scene objects and stores the result in textures?
Answer: Lightmap baking
Lightmap baking pre-computes global illumination including indirect light bounces and soft shadows for static objects, storing them in textures for efficient real-time playback.