4 - Competent Lightmap Creation 2 - Display Alpha Channels in 3DSMax 8

[Mauler]

This is just a spin off tutorial created for the lightmap tutorial. This mainly covers how to properly cast shadows of trees,plants, foliage etc in 3DSmax for rendering or lightmap purposes.

 

Open your scene that contains your mesh. Here I have a level I wish to lightmap. I want to have the palm tree cast a shadow on the terrain using the existing alpha channel created for it. Normally W3D materials in max do not render with alpha channels.

 

Here is the W3D material that does not have the channel enabled. **Aritst Notes: You will need a W3D material and a Standard Max material for this setup

 

We will need to create a standard max material for rendering and viewport previews. First off bring up the material editor and click a empty slot, Under "Shader Basic Parameters" click 2-sided. Then click the "Maps" rollout. Set the the "Diffuse Color" to your desired bitmap texture while in diffuse make sure the alpha source is set to opaque, Click "Opacity" and set the bitmap texture to the same texture as diffuse, as this contains your alpha channel. While in opacity, make sure to set the "Mono Channel Output" to Alpha.

 

Once completed apply the standard max material to the desired mesh you wish to display the alpha enabled mesh. Make sure to click the "Show Map in Viewport" button (looks like a checkered box)

 

After applying the max material the mesh should now properly display your texture alpha channel in viewport and renderer. **Aritst Notes: If you see just a grey mesh you need to click on the "Show in Viewport" box to enable

 

Final render results: W3D material on LEFT and Standard Max Material on RIGHT. As you can see the alpha channel material will give me very good results for my lightmap rendering or scene renders!

 

Remember to revert the Standard Max material to a W3D material upon exporting, as max materials do not function properly in Renegade

 

Goodluck and enjoy!

Edited August 2, 2016 by moonsense715