Addon Preferences
Sanctus Bake stores its preferences in the Blender Addon Preferences panel. These settings control the default behavior for new baking queues and per-map-type sample counts.
Where to find it
Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons, search for "Sanctus Bake", and expand the addon to see the preferences panel.
General Defaults
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Baking Export Format | The default image format for baked textures (PNG, TIFF, OpenEXR, etc.). |
| Resolution | Default bake resolution for new baking queues. Can be overridden per-queue. |
| Auto Margin | Enable auto margin by default for new baking queues. |
| Margin (pixels) | Default margin in pixels when Auto Margin is disabled. |
| Pack ORM Texture | When enabled, AO, Roughness, and Metallic maps are packed into a single RGB texture by default. |
Mesh Map Defaults
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Ambient Occlusion | Enable AO baking by default for new baking queues. |
| Curvature | Enable Curvature baking by default for new baking queues. |
Decal Defaults
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Bake Decals | Enable decal baking by default for new baking queues. |
| Decal Inherits Normal | When enabled, decal normals blend with the underlying surface normals by default. |
Lighting Defaults
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Direct Light | Enable direct light baking by default for new baking queues. |
| Indirect Light | Enable indirect light baking by default for new baking queues. |
Default Samples
Each map type has its own default sample count. These are applied when a new map is added to the queue:
| Map Type | Default Samples | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Base Color | 1 | Samples for Base Color / Albedo maps |
| Metallic | 1 | Samples for Metallic maps |
| Specular | 1 | Samples for Specular maps |
| Roughness | 1 | Samples for Roughness maps |
| Normal | 8 | Samples for Normal maps (higher default for quality) |
| Displacement | 1 | Samples for Displacement / Height maps |
| Emission | 1 | Samples for Emission maps |
| Alpha | 1 | Samples for Alpha / Opacity maps |
| Ambient Occlusion | 32 | Samples for AO maps (higher default for clean results) |
| Other | 1 | Samples for custom / user-defined map types |
OpenEXR Output Override
When the Default Baking Export Format is set to OpenEXR, these overrides control the bit depth and compression codec used during bulk Texture Set exports (the Save All button in the Texture Sets panel).
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| EXR Color Depth | Bit depth for all exported EXR textures. Options: 8 (8-bit int), 16 (16-bit half float), 32 (32-bit float). Default: 16. |
| EXR Codec | Compression codec for all exported EXR textures. Options: NONE (uncompressed), PXR24, ZIP (lossless), PIZ (lossless), RLE, ZIPS, DWAA, DWAB. Default: ZIP. |
Scope
These overrides apply to all map types (Base Color, Normal, Roughness, Metallic, etc.) when the bulk export format is OpenEXR. Individual per-texture saves (the Save button next to each texture) use Blender's native image save dialog with full settings.
Color Space & Bit Depth Pipeline
Sanctus Bake automatically handles color spaces and bit depths based on your chosen export format and the active OCIO working space. No configuration is needed — the engine detects everything at bake time.
| Export Format | Base Color / Emission | Normal / Displacement | Other Maps |
|---|---|---|---|
| PNG / JPEG | Linear Rec.709, 8-bit | Non-Color, 16-bit | Non-Color, 8-bit |
| TIFF | Linear Rec.709, 16-bit | Non-Color, 16-bit | Non-Color, 16-bit |
| OpenEXR | Linear Rec.709, 32-bit float | Non-Color, 32-bit float | Non-Color, 32-bit float |
Why Linear Rec.709 for color maps?
Cycles bakes in linear working space, so all in-memory images store linear data. The color space tag is always Linear Rec.709 (or the working space equivalent) — the conversion to sRGB gamma happens only at save time via save_render(). This guarantees that packed .blend files look identical after reload.
For a complete technical breakdown, see the Color Space Pipeline documentation.
How Preferences Are Applied
When you create a new object or start a new baking queue, Sanctus Bake automatically applies your saved preferences to the queue settings. You can always override individual settings per-queue in the SBake panel without affecting the global defaults.
Restoring Defaults
Each baking queue has a Restore Default Settings button at the bottom of the Settings section. Clicking it resets the queue's settings back to the values defined in the Addon Preferences.