I had problems with the Egypt hair where the transparency maps kept getting replaced by the texture maps no matter what I'd do.  A few people confirmed that it was a bug that hasn't been resolved yet.  It renders fine but is solid in any preview mode I use OR mistakenly uses the texture map as the transparency map as I've said which looks very weird.  I've just tried using the Millenium Beard for M3 and I'm having a similar problem.  The transparency maps don't load.  When I reload the textures they do, but they just don't work in any preview mode like the beard for M2 does.
The M3 beard will render ok, but I want to see the different MAT poses as I'm working, and the only choice I have is without any transparency maps.  Has anybody else had this problem?

Have you tried to do a render to see how it looks once rendered? Oftentimes things look odd in preview mode but look fine once rendered.

In P6 there were texture /memory load problems and it would refuse to add a new texture once it had cached too much. Only way to clear it was to reboot...

Then there is texture path. Perhaps you can point the exe installer to both your main runtime and externals.

Then there is doing the image file/ nodes yourself in the matroom. Easy to do. Study a similar prop hair and copy the settings... Then save the good Egypt hair back to your library so you never have to worry about it again. This is probably the best option

It renders fine.

In Preview mode:

1. For the Egypt hair, the diffuse texture gets used as the transparency map no matter what I do.  Even if I go into the advanced mode and change it, it will use the diffuse texture.

2. For the M3 beard, the transparency maps only appear if I put them there manually, either in the simple or advanced modes, and unlike the Egypt hair, they stay there.  They just don't have any effect in the Preview mode.

I only have one Runtime.

Transparency display is set to "Enhance multiple transparency".

So, the final render of either hair prop is fine.  It's just that I have to do a render to see what it looks like because I can't see any kind of transparency changes in Preview mode.  And that's what I want.  And I don't understand why I can't have what I want all the time. ;-)

I seem to remember a long time ago, I had the same problem with a prop.  Just out of curiosity, I saved it as an .OBJ with a new name and then imported it again.  I applied the diffuse and transparency maps to the new .OBJ, and they worked!  I suppose I could try saving the hair figures out with new .OBJ names, but then I would have to edit the CR2 files to point to the new geometries, wouldn't I?  I've never done that before.  I don't even know if that would work.

*I seem to remember a long time ago, I had the same problem with a prop.  Just out of curiosity, I saved it as an .OBJ with a new name and then imported it again.  I applied the diffuse and transparency maps to the new .OBJ, and they worked!  I suppose I could try saving the hair figures out with new .OBJ names, but then I would have to edit the CR2 files to point to the new geometries, wouldn't I?  I've never done that before.  I don't even know if that would work.

It's pretty easy to do. Are you sure you want to? Hell,, I'll buy you a new hair... Costs me less than to type with one finger...;PP Many great new hair props out since Egypt and (I think) way better.

But wth,,, tenacity is a good thing to have in life and poser

Well it's pretty easy to just save a prop out as a new .OBJ and then import it again.  There's no CR2 file to deal with for a prop.  I would want to know exactly how to find the references to the geometry file in the CR2 file so I could change it and point it to the new one.  That's how it works isn't it?

You are SO right when it comes to tenacity, especially with Poser.  Of the myriad bugs I've encountered, I've always eventually found a fix, work-around, or answer.  Some took me a couple of years, but eventually I found a way.  These transparency problems are the latest.  Oh, and sometimes, after using Poser for a long period of time, a prop (usually a hair prop) suddenly becomes separated from the figure's head and will not re-attach for all the money in the world.  Probably a memory problem.  In that case, I just save the scene (or all the poses, etc.) and restart the program.  But it's bizarre.

*That's how it works isn't it?

*Yes. I'd open it in UVMaper and save out a copy of the uvs. Just in case. Maybe fixes a few things...
Using My docs> scroll to a cr2 and make a copy,, rename it.

Then In MS Word you use EDIT>Find and type in .obj

There are usually more than one obj references to switch out. Also need a new name with less or equal amount of letters in name.

Thanks!  I'll give it a try later.

Don't know if it matters here but...
   I've found the same problem when the trans map has dimentions of less than 512 pixels
in either width or height. I have 3Dreams Egypt Hair and the trans map is 1500x1200 so
it seems to work fine, but it might be worth checking.