export water shader as heightfield or normal?

Started by JonathanBishop, September 14, 2010, 03:01:36 PM

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JonathanBishop

I'm trying to export the results of a water shader node into a heightfield or normal map, but can't seem to get it to work.  The Visualize Normal node seems to be a good start, but doesn't give the right colors for a normal map.  A flat normal in a normal map is 128/128/255 RGB, but the Visualize Normal node either outputs green or magenta depending on how you flip the XYZ in the node.  I've also tried exporting a heightfield, but I think I don't quite understand the node structure required to get it to work.  I've added a heightfield generation node and input the water shader into the shader input.  I generated the heightfield and saved it as an EXR, but it looks nothing like the waves on the water shader.  I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I'm really not sure what I need to change to get this working.

Any help would be appreciated.