houdini-texture-bake

houdini-texture-bake

Typed texture-baking tools that bake geometry attributes to image files using Houdini's Bake Texture ROP, Labs Maps Baker, or COP-based fallback workflows.

Bake method detection

Tools auto-detect the best available bake method at runtime:

1. Labs Maps Baker (sidefx_labs → maps_baker) — richest option, single-node multi-map bake with 20+ map types (normals, cavity, curvature, thickness, roughness, metallic, etc.)
2. Bake Texture ROP (game_simple_baker / baker::2.0) — built-in Houdini 20+ ROP for standard map baking
3. COP fallback — simple per-attribute COP-based bake when neither Labs nor Bake Texture ROP is available

When no bake method is detected, tools return a structured diagnostic payload (available_methods: [], recommendations: [...]) — they never degrade to raw execute_python.

Tool groups

• bake-ao: bake_ambient_occlusion — bake ambient occlusion to texture (async, 900s timeout)
• bake-lighting: bake_lighting — bake scene lighting via Mantra/Karma render-to-texture (async, 900s timeout)
• bake-textures: bake_textures — general multi-map baking (diffuse, normals, cavity, curvature, roughness, metallic, etc.) via Labs Maps Baker or Bake Texture ROP (async, 1800s timeout)
• bake-query: list_bake_targets — scan geometry for UV-equipped, bake-compatible nodes (sync, read-only)
• bake-transfer: transfer_maps — transfer normals/displacement/diffuse from high-res source to low-res target (async, 1200s timeout)

Context limitations

• UV requirement: Bake Texture ROP and Labs Maps Baker both require the target geometry to have non-degenerate UVs. list_bake_targets reports has_uvs so callers can verify before baking.
• Renderer selection: bake_lighting supports mantra (default) and karma. Karma requires a valid XPU/CPU license.
• Labs Maps Baker: Install via sidefx_labs package or Houdini Game Dev Toolset. Detection is automatic; tools report labs_maps_baker_available in their result payload.