Baking optimizes 3D models for real-time applications by transferring complex surface details from high-poly to low-poly models, reducing rendering load while preserving visual quality. It consolidates details like normal maps, ambient occlusion, and color information into textures, enabling low-poly models to display high-fidelity visuals without the computational cost of high-poly geometry. Key use cases include game development, AR/VR, and real-time visualization, where efficient rendering is critical. For beginners, starting with baking normal and ambient occlusion maps effectively balances detail and performance in real-time projects.
