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I made this rock model in Blender, and now I want to import it into UE4. When I try to bake the normal map, I get an empty purple map and the message "baking map saved to internal image, save it externally or pack it".

I'm having the same problem when I try to bake other maps as well. Does anyone know How can I solve this problem ? I want to add more details to my material, but with this problem I can't do anything.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Hello :). These two things have nothing in common. Your empty normal map is caused by unchecked Active to Selected option. $\endgroup$
    – jachym michal
    Aug 21, 2020 at 18:41
  • $\begingroup$ Please help us keep this site organized. Ask only one question at the time. Different questions should go in different posts. $\endgroup$
    – susu
    Aug 21, 2020 at 18:48

5 Answers 5

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Your main problem is elsewhere.

You need to check Selected to Active if you're baking from a hi-res mesh.
Otherwise you'll get an empty normal map.

  1. Select your Hi-Res mesh
  2. Select your target mesh with the image texture
  3. Check Selected to Active and hit Bake.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ I have my high and low selected and selected to active enabled. I still get the message telling me it's saved externally. It was working fine 10 minutes ago and now it's not baking anything. $\endgroup$
    – Emerald Eel Entertainment
    Feb 11, 2021 at 12:37
  • $\begingroup$ Hello :). It would be best to post this comment as a new question, so others can answer. You can link this thread to provide context. You can also share your .blend pasteall.org/blend $\endgroup$
    – jachym michal
    Feb 11, 2021 at 13:09
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The message "baking map saved to internal image, save it externally or pack it" means that Blender has created this image, but the image is not saved on the computer, that's why it says to save it externally as an image file. You could also "pack" it, which means that it is saved as part of the blend file. If you don't do any of this and close Blender, the image would be lost.

By default, Blender does not save images as part of the blend file, it references the image files from the directory where they are stored.

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The blank bake is caused by either not having uvs or an object space not working (either object or tangent) maybe an unticked selected to active.

Also use cage but don't build a cage and just use the extrusion and it does it for you. Also, if this is happening with different types of maps it's probably because you didn't unwrap your low poly.

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Check what you input in normal socket of shader node. Maybe this is the problem.

I had the same problem as you. It turned out that only one node was connected to the normal socket - Normal map. Accordingly, incorrect information is passed to the shader normal and Blender does not want to bake the normal.

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Actually, it can be solved just by enlarge the Extrusion under the Selected to Active. I got the same problem when I set the Extrusion as 0.1, but I solved it when I set it as 0.3.

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