[update] alpha transparent texture display in the 3D view has been changed to use a different system in Blender 2.5 series. Read the alpha transparency tutorial to learn how to set it up correctly.
Looks like being able to see transparent textures in the 3D viewport has been screwed up again in the new 2.5 series of Blender. Apparently in order to get this to work in 2.5 you have to switch the way the material system is rendered from the default "
Multitexture" to "
GLSL" mode in the "
Shading" section of the "
View >> Properties" tool panel ("
N" when the mouse in over the 3D view).
What's stupid about this is that, although you have to switch for *new* materials set up *in* 2.5, if you import/open an old scene from pre-2.5x (2.49 etc.) that has objects with alpha-mapped textures applied (tga's and what have you), the transparency will show correctly in the viewport without the need to change
any settings from the original file. I'd consider this a bug myself, or an incomplete feature for sure.
What's frustrating is that if you search the topic, all you find is people wanting to know about
rendering transparencies; how to render images with various transparencies and/or alpha masks; barely anything on the 'game' side of things and how you're supposed to get transparent textures working as you work in the 3D window. Looks like 'game' and 'real time' production is taking a back seat again. Grrrrr
[EDIT] topic header and post updated with link to tutorial
