I'm trying to really understand graphics etc rather than just outsource it. I'm finding that in Maya and 3DS Max there's a huge difference between the look of rendered items and non-rendered. (take standard trees in 3DS Max for example) Is there any way to get the models imported into EE looking more like they do when they are rendered rather than pre-rendering? (like leaves looking good rather than square blocks of green for example?)

Thanks very much.
gh

Rendered images will always look better, simply because in a game you want it to render dozens of times per second.
Anyway, your a developer, I guess you already knew.

Square block of green? Do you mean the alpha map is not displayed (correctly)?
We can help you more if you could provide a comparing screenshot.

Tottel,

I believe you are correct, that the alpha maps are not displaying correctly.

Here is a screenshot. You can see (if you've ever worked with the stock trees in 3DS Max) that this is more what you see when you work on the model rather than when you render the model.

You can disable texture compression and change material technique to blend light