Baking Sub-Poly Displacement

[fluffouille]

SPD displaces the model according to a map, so in essence, your texture is already baked.

Baking is about taking geometry/lighting/environment/effects into account and translating them into a texture. This can't be done with displacement, since the opposite is happening ( the texture generates geometry, not the opposite).

If you don't want the effect to be calculated every time, then you'll need to use a high resolution model which is already subdivided.
Obviously, this also comes with its set of problems (can't really animate the high rez with deformers, for example) and is not really a viable solution.

So I'm afraid you'll have to re-render every time, no way around it.

[NWoolridge]

I'm sure this is an easy question, but how can I bake SPD into my model so the displacement doesn't have to be calculated at every render? (My texture is not animated obviously)

Use the mograph displace deformer (if you have it) on a subdivided or hypernurbed mesh, and choose Functions > Current State to Object. The tesselation in sub-poly displacement is essentially the same as using hypernurbs.

Nick

[fluffouille]

Not really, SPD is "smarter" than that. Regular displacement (not SPD) is closer to HN subdivision.
In any case, that still leaves him with a high rez mesh that can't be manipulated afterward.
Could be useful if it's a static model, though.

[NWoolridge]

Not really, SPD is "smarter" than that. Regular displacement (not SPD) is closer to HN subdivision.
In any case, that still leaves him with a high rez mesh that can't be manipulated afterward.
Could be useful if it's a static model, though.

I'm confused; "regular displacement" has no subdivision, so it can't be "closer to HN subdivision". Sub-poly displacement uses the same subdivision algos as HN (with a few more options like "retain original edges"), but at render time, and with a more efficient use of memory.

Having a high-res mesh is what the OP wanted, to avoid the "preparing" stage during rendering that can be very time-consuming when rendering with SPD.

Nick

[fluffouille]

Yes, you are right, but it also depends on what options he is currently using with SPD, as not all will translate to a regular HN subdivision.
All in all, you gave him the proper solution, sorry for the confusion.

P.S: I meant "regular displacement with HN applied to the object".

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