Ok, so I'm trying to render a scene with a Depth Map so that I can convert it into a hologram.

I just can't get the Z-Depth option to work - the normal map and texture co-ord maps look fine but the Z-Depth map looks like a simple mask: pure black and pure white and no in-between.

I don't have a skydome, I even turned the ground object off in case that was messing with it. I simply have a V4 figure and a few lights.

I added a primitive cube in the background to see if that would change anything but nope.

My Focus distance is 5.75 so I reckon start should be zero and end should be below 10 in terms of distance (I tried using an atmosphere with depth-cue turned on to no avail also).

any ideas?

hmm... the plot thickens, as when I render in FireFly the depth map is fine, it's just not working in SuperFly.

Here's a superfly-based Z-depth map of a Vic4, lit by a 3 lights setup: on the right (front+back: area lights), on the left: an infinite light)

So that lead me to ask: do you have a spot/point light with no attenuation?

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I had 2 infinite lights and an IBL light, no spot or point lights.

So I decided to delete all the lights and create one single light.

I tried all the different light types with SuperFly and got the same result = no z-depth map (or rather it was always like a mask with no depth information).

I then tried all the same light types using FireFly and got a z-depth map every single time.

I'm on Mac using Poser 12.0.757 so maybe it's a Mac bug... 

Superfly ignores Image-Based Lighting and DepthCue according to the manual.  

Bug report sent, for now I will use the FireFly z-Depth map.

@ader Could you attach the scene exhibiting this problem to the bug report.

@nerd, just done that, thanks.

I had already emailed the files in reply to your email but maybe you don't get the replies.

OK I get it now. It's a Cycles bug (feature?) if there's nothing in the background Cycles/SuperFly treats is as bring at infinity. Which blows out any visible queuing between objects with any object less than 1/255th of infinite distance ... with is of course still infinite.FireFly just ignores the background if there's no geometry there.

I've filed a bug report. For the meantime if you make sure the background it totally covered with anything, a scaled up square plane will do, that will make it work.

P.S. If you reply to the bug email I don't actually get those (probably so mail filter someplace). It's better to respond to the actual bug report. Them I'm sure to get it.

Cheers, I’ll check that out, will be useful being able to just render once, especially on some hologram animations I’m trying out for my Looking Glass Portrait :) 

Thank you for solving this !  I've learned something new today !!