Knowledge Base

3dsmax 2015 – PNG alpha opacity

This is how a simple opacity map works:

opacity

Rather than creating 2 different bitmaps, you could use an image file format which supports transparency information for each pixel in the image (TGA / PNG).

PNG texture:

alpha_png

Material editor.  Notice the opacity slot is not used:

alpha off

Render:

alpha off render

Material editor – Notice how the texture bitmap image (PNG) is used both in the diffuse slot and the opacity slot:

alpha on

Note that you have to change the “Mono(chromatic) Channel Output” to Alpha, so the PNG transparency (and not the PNG RGB) channel is used -only for those material maps that typically expect a black and white (monochromatic) bitmap; the diffuse map will use the RGB channel of the PNG image obviously.

Render:

alpha on render

3dsmax 2015 – PNG alpha opacity was last modified: March 25th, 2015 by tabcom

Diskless boot of Microsoft Windows (Internet Cafe)

First of all, if you don’t mind managing multiple computers individually (where each computer comes with a local hard disk or solid state drive), simply use Deep Freeze.

If however you want your computers to boot diskless from a single image, you will need:

  1. Open source network boot firmware iPXE.
  2. USB memory sticks – one for each client.
  3. Sysprep / Dism.
  4. iSCSI target pointing to a hard disk containing Microsoft Windows.

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Diskless boot of Microsoft Windows (Internet Cafe) was last modified: May 26th, 2015 by tabcom