Export UV mapped texture maps to images?

Question

I have a series of texture maps (such as diffuse map, normal map, etc.) correctly set up in the Cycles node tree.

When I export my model to .obj, I notice the accompanying .mtl file doesn't really specify those maps with tags map_Kd, map_Ks, etc. I understand why this is happening -- you just can‘t really "export" Cycles material. That said, UV mapping is saved in .obj as tag vt.

How can I export those UV unwrapped texture maps out as new texture maps that match with the vt coordinates in the .obj?

I know I can bake the texture to an image, and that image indeed matches with the vt coordinates in the .obj. Although this is almost what I want, it's still different -- I don't need to bake the lighting information, etc. All I need is pixel-shifted-around versions of the original diffuse, normal, etc. maps.

Answer 1

The approach I am taking now is to bake Diffuse with only Color Pass turned on, i.e., without Direct or Indirect. What I get looks like "the pixel-shifted-around versions of the original diffuse map", and it definitely matches the UV coordinates in the .obj file because it's baked. Hence, it serves my purposes for now.

That said, I am not sure if this is really the best way or even the correct way of doing this thing.