Some alpha texture issues

[Doobes]

Trying to get an easy way of spreading some trees in my Age. Everything is perfect with the first tree, then I try to copy it (shift+D) and...

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Each rung of branches on both trees is on the same material. As you can see, the left (first) tree's alpha works fine, but the copy isn't for some reason. Anyone have an idea why?

[ametist]

I think the second tree shows up like that because the sky-texture is the background when viewing. The first tree has a solid tetxure as background. Have you set passindex on for the branch texture? Try the info in this thread too, about the size of pictures for textures.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3623&start=10

[Doobes]

Here's a better view of each tree and how they interact with the sky:

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Original tree is the top view, while the Shift+D copy is below it. All branch rungs on both trees are at a high Passindex of 21. Also, no part of either is modified by AlcScript, like the renderlevel and such. Does something I'm not aware of get lost in the copy process?

[tachzusamm]

It seems, kinda, sorta, that your "Active Face Alpha Blending (Transp)" setting is not copied; this can be found under Editing (F9), Texture Face.
Your examples look like they are using Opaque or Alpha instead of Clip Alpha.

As default, Blender makes a duplicate of the mesh, not a link to the same mesh, when an object is copied; this can be found under Blender's options, button Edit Methods.

[Doobes]

I tried switching each rung of branches on the second tree to "Clip Alpha" as you described. No dice.

I've used the Ztransp button, and while it does get rid of the alpha "cutting" effect seen in the pics above, it also doesn't look right when viewed from the side. Before that, I also noticed via flymode that, when looking down at the second copy tree towards the ground, everything blends right, and on the first tree, it has the same "cutting" effect of the second tree when it's viewed from the bottom. Flipping normals on the second tree's branches didn't do anything for that.

By the way, I very much appreciate the help! Keep it coming!

[dendwaler]

it's a common problem and many are searching for the right answers.
I have exactly the same, and sometimes find a solution for a single object but i am not able to find the real solution.

Most of the time it occurs when two tranparencies overlap each other and both transparencies have the same render order.
For instance a tree with a waveset on the background is a problem, turning around the same tree it disappears when it has another background.
The alcscript to force late rendering helps for this, but not always.
tree:
visual:
renderlevel:
major:
- late
minor:
- blend

The transparency pixels around the tree edges can course the problem.
I had it introduced when i altered the size of a texture from 512 to 256.
Lontahv found a solution for this and made a wiki entry for this a few days ago.
It realy helps in many cases i advise to give it a try and filter your texture with this tool.

http://www.guildofwriters.com/wiki/Alpha_Textures_Removing_Edge

You can see the difference in my thread of turtle isle, before and after filtering.
http://forum.guildofwriters.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3809&start=30

[Doobes]

Finally got it! I've been testing and adjusting settings for most of the afternoon and then...a breakthrough.

I adjusted the Zoffs settings on both the cloud cover (has alpha) and mountain range (has alpha too) so that the skydome has 0, clouds 1, mountains 2. I then took all rungs of branches on the first tree and merged them into one object (Ctrl + J). THEN I added the AlcScript I had tried earlier (and dendwaler kindly reiterated...fantastic job on Turtle Isle, by the way!) to the combined branches mesh. Finally, I used the Alt+D copy function (Duplicate Linked) to make a new second tree. And BINGO. It worked!

Thanks to everyone who offered advice! I hope to announce this Age formally here very soon.

EDIT: Shift+D also works in place of Alt+D.