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Yab - Yet Another Baker

by MozzarellaARC·Workflow

Images © MozzarellaARC. Used for product review; image policy.

Why we like it

YAB earns its place in the superhive library as a deliberately minimal Principled BSDF baker. It skips high-to-low and cage baking in favor of a single panel that handles common passes and packed maps, which suits users who want a straightforward baking step in Blender.

What is Yab - Yet Another Baker?

YAB - Yet Another Baker is a minimal texture-baking add-on for Blender from MozzarellaARC. It bakes Principled BSDF passes directly from selected meshes, and everything runs from a single panel in the 3D Viewport sidebar under the YAB tab. It is built as a Blender extension for versions 4.2 through 4.5 and bakes with the Cycles render engine using either CPU or GPU.

The baker covers a broad set of passes: Ambient Occlusion, Shadow, Diffuse, Normal in tangent space, Emission, Metalness, Roughness, Glossiness computed as one minus roughness, and Position in world or object space. It also outputs packed maps out of the box, including AORM, which writes AO to red, Roughness to green, and Metalness to blue, plus an RM variant. OpenEXR keeps raw values, while other formats are normalized where applicable.

It is multi-object friendly, baking every selected mesh at once, and cleanups are handled automatically. You can customize the naming convention and use estimation helpers, and set resolution, file format, padding, and sample count before baking. By design it stays simple, with no high-to-low baking or cage configuration.

Who is Yab - Yet Another Baker best for?

Yab - Yet Another Baker is best for intermediate Blender users and daily power users who want a simple Principled BSDF baker.

How much does Yab - Yet Another Baker cost?

Yab - Yet Another Baker is completely free to download and use.

Key features

  • Single panel that handles the available bake passes
  • Multi-object friendly: bakes every selected mesh at once
  • Packed maps out of the box, including AORM (AO→R, Roughness→G, Metalness→B) and RM
  • Broad pass set: AO, Shadow, Diffuse, Normal, Emission, Metalness, Roughness, Glossiness (1−Roughness), and Position in world or object space
  • Automatic cleanups after baking
  • Customizable naming convention with estimation helpers
  • Configurable resolution, file format, padding, samples, and CPU or GPU device

Tags

#texture baking#principled bsdf#pbr maps#blender add-on#normal map#ambient occlusion#packed maps

Frequently asked questions

Which Blender versions does YAB support?

YAB - Yet Another Baker works with Blender 4.2 through 4.5 and bakes using the Cycles render engine, where you can choose CPU or GPU for the job. It is distributed as a Blender extension rather than a classic add-on, so it relies on the extensions system available in Blender 4.2 and later. Legacy add-on installation is not supported. Within the panel you also set resolution, file format, padding between UV islands, and sample count, so the version you run should be within the supported 4.2 to 4.5 range.

How do I install YAB in Blender?

YAB - Yet Another Baker installs through Blender's extensions system. Download the zip file named yab, then open Blender, go to Edit, Preferences, Extensions, and choose Install from Disk before selecting the zip. Legacy add-on installation is not supported, so the extensions route is the only supported method. After installing, open the 3D Viewport sidebar with the N key, then find the YAB tab and the Yet Another Baker panel, where you set your output directory, base name, and bake types before clicking Bake Selected.

Does YAB support high-to-low or cage baking?

YAB - Yet Another Baker is simple by design and focuses on pure Principled BSDF baking, so it does not include high-to-low baking or cage configuration. Instead, it bakes passes directly from selected meshes, including Ambient Occlusion, Shadow, Diffuse, Normal in tangent space, Emission, Metalness, Roughness, Glossiness computed as one minus roughness, and Position in world or object space. If your workflow depends on projecting detail from a high-poly mesh onto a low-poly mesh with a cage, this baker does not cover that case.

Can YAB bake several objects and packed maps at once?

YAB - Yet Another Baker is multi-object friendly, so you can select several mesh objects in the 3D Viewport and bake them all at once with Bake Selected. It also produces packed maps out of the box, with AORM writing AO to red, Roughness to green, and Metalness to blue in a single image, plus an RM variant. Cleanups are handled automatically, and you can customize the naming convention along with estimation helpers. OpenEXR keeps raw values, while other formats are normalized where applicable.

Is YAB free to use?

YAB - Yet Another Baker is listed as free in this catalog. Licensing can change over time, so check the developer's page for the current terms before you download. The add-on is released under the GPL-3.0-or-later license by MozzarellaARC, which covers how the code can be used and redistributed. For the latest details on availability and any usage conditions, the developer's page is the most reliable place to confirm before installing.

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