The developer for tree[d] uploaded a fixed B3D importer for 3ds Max, works great now... brings in vertex colors, and each branch & leaves are separate meshes (easy to edit!), and everything's in a nice hierarchy. Great for making branch/leaves textures.
I used a super-low-poly mesh for my reference object, thinking that less vertex normals would speed the script up. But it didn't, the speed seems to be relative to the number of vertex normals on the selected mesh (the tree foliage). I made some more tests. The one on the right didn't turn out so hot because I used a bunch…
Right, just modeling a shape that looks like how I want the tree's normals to point. The red shape was not a good one tho, too simple. Normal Thief worked better when I fed it more of a metaball-style shape. Photos work well, and hand-painting the alpha has worked better for me than working to remove the fringe I get when…