Marmoset Toolbag Bake Artifacts
Streaks and skewed detail in a Toolbag bake
Also known as: Toolbag baking problems · Marmoset bake streaks · Marmoset bake cage · Marmoset paint skew · Toolbag normal bake wrong · Marmoset bake black spots
Quick answer
Bake artifacts in Marmoset Toolbag appear when the baking rays do not follow the surface correctly. Put the low-poly and high-poly into a bake group so each part only sees its partner, use a cage or adjust the Offset so rays start and end in the right place, and use Paint Skew to fix streaks and skewed detail by hand. Also check normals, overlapping UVs and the smoothing of the low-poly.
How to fix it
Fix problems from the largest cause to the smallest: first the match between low and high, then the cage or offset, and then skew painting for what remains. Bake at a low resolution to test, and check each map on its own. Smoothing the cage can fix streaks on curved surfaces, and keeping hard edges and UV splits together reduces errors. Export the finished maps to Substance Painter or your engine.