3ds max: Blend Map vs. Complete Map

killingpeople

i don't really use these specific bake "texture elements" all that much, but i was curious about the "blend" selection. what is it used for? maybe i could be using them.

in max's help, i find the descriptions for these baked texture elements:

A complete map saves most surface properties of the rendered object; specifically:

Lighting

Diffuse color

Specular color

Reflections

Shadows

Ambient color

Self-illumination color

Refractions

Component Options (Selected Elements Unique Settings)
For a complete map, you can choose not to render shadows.

A blend map is like a complete map, except that all its components, not just shadows, are optional.

Component Options (Selected Elements Unique Settings)
For a blend map, you can choose not to render any of the following components:

Lighting

Diffuse color

Specular color

Reflections

Shadows

Ambient color

Self-illumination color

Refractions

Kawe

From what it looks like (I dont use max) is that with complete map you get it as it'd look when you render it out normally.. full bake... with all lighting information etc. etc... or well.. apparently you can skip out on shadows.

A blend map is thus where you can pick what you want. So if you only want the diffuse you can check only that. Very handy if you want to re-bake a diffuse map to another UV set.

That's what I'm guessing.

killingpeople

Sure but, other than complete and blend, there are many more Map Types that basically make the option to do so obsolete, other than combining the results into one map for you. regarding removing certain maps, why not just remove them from the actual material in the editor, and where? i don't see any options to customize this, i'm sure it all makes sense. i just don't really understand it all that well because i haven't spent the time to research it all. i don't really care enough to research it and was looking for a quick summary.. anyway. here are the other Map Types just to give you an idea of why i was wondering:

Complete
Specular
Diffuse
Shadows
Lighting
Normals
Blend
Alpha
Height

Eric Chadwick

Blend map is there if you simply want to combine certain elements into a single map, without having to composite them together afterwards. Complete is the same but no choices.