[JTB]

I have some trees in TIFF format with alpha channel. I need to make a forest with Forestpack so I would like to make a material with clipmaps.
However, I don't know how to use TIFF very well.
I believe that with material editor, the only choise is to create the 3 images (reflection, alpha,alpha inverted).
What about from inside MAX? I don't really know how to handle those image options when assigning maps...
How does it work? Any help would be great.

[JTB]

Please anyone
I just need a screenshot of bitmap parameters or a few words, nothing very detailed

[Mihai]

I think you would need to separate the alpha from your tiff images first. You only need two images though. One clipmap, and one weightmap for the second bsdf (in case you want to make shiny leafs). If you're not sure how to make clipmaps check the tutorial section, there's plenty of info.

You need:
First bsdf, lambert: put your color image of the leaf in refl0°, put your clipmap in the transmittance channel. Set ND to 1.

Second bsdf, ND 3 or more (depends how shiny you want it), roughness around 10 (depends how sharp you want the reflections), refl0° can be a dark grey, refl90° can be left at 255. Use a weightmap for this bsdf as you only want the reflections to show up where the leaf is.

[JTB]

I think you would need to separate the alpha from your tiff images first. You only need two images though. One clipmap, and one weightmap for the second bsdf (in case you want to make shiny leafs). If you're not sure how to make clipmaps check the tutorial section, there's plenty of info.

You need:
First bsdf, lambert: put your color image of the leaf in refl0°, put your clipmap in the transmittance channel. Set ND to 1.

Second bsdf, ND 3 or more (depends how shiny you want it), roughness around 10 (depends how sharp you want the reflections), refl0° can be a dark grey, refl90° can be left at 255. Use a weightmap for this bsdf as you only want the reflections to show up where the leaf is.

Thank you for your reply, I have no problems using clipmaps with maxwell, actually I use the other method most of the times, I know what you're saying though.
So, I guess most of the libs out there (with trees and plants) are useless for Maxwellians... It is a lot of work to do this for every image....

[Mihai]

The ability to choose alpha from an image would be nice, but for extracting the alpha from a tiff into a separate image, you could do that for your whole collection in a few seconds using a Photoshop action.

[JTB]

The ability to choose alpha from an image would be nice, but for extracting the alpha from a tiff into a separate image, you could do that for your whole collection in a few seconds using a Photoshop action.

Thanks, I'll try

EDIT: No, I can't... After all I use PSP only for reaally simple adjustments... (saturation, contrast etc)

So, if anyone can show me a batch command to extract alpha channel and save to a file....?