Heya... well I had some luck... I have no idea what i was doing wrong the last time, but it seems to be working now. (i think perhaps btb was getting confused with files that where already in use or something) ....
Anyway, although the end result isnt quite good enough, ill post a tutorial in Images, so others can do this for rbr without having to mess around with 3rd party plugins.
1. I create the object/texture in photoshop.. making it on a transparent background, and making sure its in a legal size and aspect ratio... For this i will use 256x256.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/01.jpg
2. As explained above you`ll need to "see" what your doing in 3dsmax so ill first save this file as a standard jpg.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/02.jpg
3. After that is done, I need to save it as a dds file with alpha values. These are the settings I tried:
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/03.jpg
4. Then its into 3dsmax ..... I open my scale template (a simpl car object that helps me figure out the scale of whatever im creating) .
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/04.jpg
5. I create a simple plane. And give it 1 , 1 segments, so that a 2 polygon object... I scale it to the size i want to import it into btb as.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/05.jpg
6. I then map the "jpg" onto the plane and set it to 2faced.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/06.jpg
7. I then delete the car, and centre the grass object at 0,0 or as close to as i can
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/07.jpg
8. I then export the object as a 3ds, the same way you would normally do it.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/08.jpg
9. Next its into Xpacker. I give the xpack a name and import the object.
(make sure your texture files are in the same folder as your 3ds or xpacker cant import)
I will leave the settings as they are since i can edit these in btb itself.
So i proceed to export as a zipped xpack.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/09.jpg
10. Finaly we arrive in BTB. So I place the object ive just made onto my scene.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/10.jpg
11. Next i need to replace the solid jpg with the transparent dds file i created in photoshop.
So I bring up the Mats Editor in btb, and click on the bush material. I set it to transparent alpha.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/11.jpg
12. I then flick onto the "texture tab" and looking for my dds file.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/12.jpg
13. This warning comes up almost all the time, Ive no idea what its telling other then what it says, but I have just created these image files and object with unique names, so there are no other conflicts with anything else.. I usually just press "NO" at this point and things "usually" work.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/13.jpg
14. After replacing the jpg with the dds file, you should see something like this
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/14.jpg
15. Press ok. and assuming there's no more warnings or errors, you should see your bush now with a transparent background.
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/15.jpg
And there you have it.
Just something im curious about. The edges are pretty bad here, I looked at the original image in photoshop and zoomed right in on the edges, also put a temp background color in just so i can see what the edges are like under different shades.. its looks fine in photoshop, but in btb looks bad. I thought its because of the dds output settings, I also tryed dx1 to 3 with alpha.. but still same rough edging. For other things that use alpha i have used the 256 alpha mode with success, but for some reason photoshop refuses to export my experiment bush/grass out with these settings
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/16.jpg
it crashes every time.
anyway..
this is where im at.. Ill mess about with the image in photoshop and see if i can get better edges on it
regards
pan
EDIT: well it seems the main reason why i was getting hard edges on the bush was because of the poor original image, or more specificly the poor "feathering" around the selection/mask. .. I tried a few others and things are working fantastic now using dx3 setting:
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/20.jpg
the "
http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/20.jpg" link is linking to "http://www.fractalscapes.net/designs/fto/16.jpg" ?! huh?