[zbuf]

> - it seems to mean any kind of precomputing stuff

Yes, it's a fancy word for that.

But when hearing that word (rather than 'precompute' or 'compile') it implies a few things.

Usually it means precomputing to a file rather than memory.

Mostly, but not always, baking implies generating a large amount of data from a smaller amount.

Typically the source description is for a whole sequence or animation, but the baked data will be a distinct set of data for each frame.