Issue: Transparency Not Displaying in 3ds Max Viewport with Arnold
When trying to see the transparency of an Opacity map in the 3ds Max Viewport using an Arnold Standard Surface shader, the object with the shader doesn’t show any transparency.
Choosing the “Show Shaded Material in Viewport” option also doesn’t help in displaying the transparency.
Plane with an applied Arnold Standard Surface material using a Diffuse and Opacity map in 3ds Max.
Environment:
Arnold render engine
Causes:
This behavior is due to the current design and implementation of MAXtoA within 3ds Max.
Solution:
To view the transparency of Opacity mapping in the Viewport when using Arnold as the active render engine, there are two methods you can use:
Use ActiveShade in the Viewport
Arnold Standard Surface shaders don’t correctly show transparency in the Viewports.
However, ActiveShade turns the Viewport into an ActiveShade renderer. This renders and displays transparency properly using Arnold. This option is useful for viewing “final product” renders without needing to click the Render button.
Use Physical Materials
Since Physical Materials are compatible with Arnold, they can display transparency in the Viewport without needing ActiveShade.
Refer to some related articles:
–3ds Max 2020 crashes immediately when rendering with Octane renderer
–Mirrored parts of a linked Revit model are scattered in 3ds Max scene
–How to convert V-Ray materials to Arnold materials for rendering in 3ds Max
