Render to Texture Alpha Maps in 3ds Max

paulsvoboda

I've been trying to find a way to project alpha maps onto my low via the Render to Texture method. I can Render out low poly objects with an alpha assigned to it using a standard camera setup but every time I do a Render To Texture it picks up black squares around the texture and won't treat the objects like they have an alpha on them.

To try to make it clearer; At the moment I have low poly planes with a leaf texture unwrapped to each plane. The texture has an alpha and I can render it out using the standard render option but I need/prefer to do a RTT, and yet every time I do it doesn't pick up the alpha assigned to the objects.

I was wondering if anyone had a solution to this or if this is just something you can't do in Max?

m4dcow

I don't think RTT works with alphas, I've seen people setup an orthographic camera and specific light setup for normals and other map types.

These threads may be of help:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53374
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=826598&postcount=32

SpeCter

You could color your transparent parts in a color you won´t use,bake that in and delete it afterwards(not sure how good it works, but it should work without problems if no antialiasing etc. gets applied during the RTT process)

Edit:
Nevermind that, your problem is another one

paulsvoboda

^ @m4dcow - Thanks for those - those links were great! I've been mainly going the route of setting up lights and rendering out normal's that way (Ben Cloward's set up), It works well enough but in certain situations it's quite a bit of work to get it right, and other times it's the best route to take.