How to stick transparent texture?

[WrongAgain]

I want to export a 3DMax scene to W3D, which has some transparent texture
content(some trees).
We know 3DMax use a common picture and a black-white mask picture to make
transparent texture. But in this way, the W3D file exported has some ploblem on
the transparent texture, the area that should be transparent is black!
So I change the way of the textures of my trees in 3DMax. Now I use some TIF
picturse with alpha . In this way, things are right in the W3D exporting report
dialog. But when imported to Director, the textures become wrong again(area
that should be transparent is black)!

How to stick transparent texture in 3DMax and export it into W3D?
And why it is different in 3DMax W3D exporting report dialog and in Director?

[necromanthus]

Hi ... what's your name (btw).
Use 24 bit PNG with transparent color (not transparent layer !).
A simple method to get that is to use PhotoEditor (from MS Office) and to
select the texture background's color (usually black, or any other dark color)
as transparent color.
If you render your scene in 3DSMax you'll get NO transparency, but after
exporting the W3D file you'll get the expected result.
cheers

[Newt99]

As I stated in the Chrome Lib Support page:

For textures with alpha channel, whether they are mapped on objects or
displayed as overlays to render properly, you must force Shockwave 3D to
render the textures in 32 bit mode. To this end, use the Texture Render Format
behavior and set it up to RGBA8888 or in Lingo:
member("scene").texture.("name").renderFormat = #RGBA8888

Opacity masks are not supported by Shockwave 3D. If you setup an opacity mask
in a channel in your 3D package, the alpha channel will not be exported. You
must include the opacity mask in the texture. I.e, instead of having a 24 bit
texture + an 8 bit opacity mask, you must create a 32 bit bitmap with an 8 bit
alpha channel and map it as a texture on your model.

Cheers,
Karl.

[WrongAgain]

I see, thanks!

[Newt99]

Remember an alpha channel can be used for three purposes:

1- Giving a sharp shape to a texture (opacity mask)
2- Giving a smooth shape to a texture (as for a lit light bulb)
3- Creating a transparent texture (from 0 to 255)

To create a transparent texture, you can save up memory space by using the
shader blend property instead, however with less control, as with an alpha
channel, the transparency level can vary within the texture (e.g a gradient or
photo used as an alpha).

Cheers,
Karl.

[Newt99]

To be exhaustive on the subject:

Director accepts PSD files with alpha channels so you don't even have to
export your 32 bit bitmaps to PNG, TARGA or TIFF format. You can import them
directly (just drag'n'drop them from Explorer to the internal cast). Also,
check out the Convert to Alpha standard Xtra feature in Macromedia Fireworks,
which allow you to convert any image to an alpha channel.

Cheers,
Karl.