Blender Alpha Channel Madness

October 15th, 2013

When I was first learning blender I stumbled into getting alpha channel textures to display in the 3D view in Blender. I continued to use the same starting file / setup so I always get this behavior. Well I have built a new gaming / development computer and had to reinstall Blender on it. I soon discovered that this transparency / alpha channel display was anything but straight forward. It took me several hours to find the "secret sauce" to get this to work.

I found the answer near the bottom of this tutorial:
http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/scene-view-alpha-transparency.php

Here is the no-nonsense solution:
1. UV map texture onto object (see other tutorials on how to do this)

2. in the "3D View" press N
   > go to "Display" section
   > in shading pick singletexture or multitexture
   > check 'Textured Solid'

3. On the top menu bar change the engine used for rendering to "Blender Game".
   > the default value is "Blender Render"
   > this will enable a "hidden" game settings feature

4. In the "Properties" view select the "material" section/tab
   > go to "Game Settings" section
   > in "Alpha Blend" select "Alpha Blend"
   > if you want double sided uncheck "Backface Culling"

Optional:
5. On the top menu bar change the engine used for rendering back to "Blender Render".