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Why can't I bake a glass material?

Baking a material creates a static image map (like a flat photograph of colors and lighting). Glass, however, is not just a static color or pattern—it is entirely dynamic.

Here is why baking glass isn't possible in Blender (or any other 3D software or render engine):

  1. Refraction & Environment Interaction: Glass doesn’t have its own color; it bends (refracts) light and distorts whatever is behind it and around it in your 3D scene. A baked image is flat and cannot dynamically react to a changing environment or camera angle.

  2. Real-Time Physics: Glass relies on real-time ray tracing or complex shader calculations (roughness, transmission, index of refraction) to simulate how light passes through and bounces off a physical medium. These effects change continuously depending on where the camera and light sources are positioned.

  3. Engine-Specific Behavior: Glass is rendered differently by every single engine (Cycles, Eevee, Unreal Engine, LuxCore, etc.). A baked texture is engine-agnostic and cannot replicate the deep math required for light transmission.

The Solution: Instead of baking, glass materials should remain procedural/shader-based so they can accurately calculate light refraction, transparency, and reflections in real-time within your scene.