Maya: Get depth data??

I am trying to get the distance from the camera to all visible points in the scene. The z-buffer is exactly that, correct? However I've been told that you cannot export Maya's z-buffer. I tried checking the "depth channel" box and rendering in a format other than iff, so i get out the SCENENAME_DEPTH.iff also. However, I can't seem to save (using fcheck) this as a normal file type (tif, jpg, whatever) so that I can read it in matlab.

Also, since this is just a greyscale image, how do i know the actual depth from the scene? I will end up with a range of values between 0 and 255... but how do I know the actual distance in meters or whatever?

Any direction would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

David

well, I do not have an answer to your question, there is most likely some who does, but I am not sure if they are here.

Its just about dead around here, I came as a Representative of the scorched3d community, and have been sitting here waiting for signs of life.

On a general bit of trouble shooting, are all other measurements given in meters?

on a bit of pipe dream hope, would you possible be able to work in blender, milkshape or 3dsmax?
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