When is the best time to bake lightmaps in Unity?

Baking lightmaps in Unity is an important step in optimizing a scene's lighting and performance, particularly for static objects. The best time to perform this task is after ensuring that all static objects and lights are arranged and configured within the scene. This is crucial because the lightmap baking process involves calculating how light interacts with static geometry in the scene. If changes are made to the arrangement or configuration of objects or lights after the bake has been completed, those adjustments won't be reflected in the lightmaps until the baking process is repeated.

This ensures that the lighting accurately reflects the final setup of the scene, resulting in better visual fidelity and performance. By waiting until everything is arranged and configured, artists can maximize the effectiveness of their baked lightmaps, eliminating the need for rework and iteration due to late-stage adjustments to the scene elements.

Other contexts like adding visual effects, completing scripting, or designing the user interface do not impact the lightmap baking process directly and can be addressed at different stages of game development. It is essential to focus on scene geometry and lighting configurations before finalizing lightmaps to achieve the best results.