I don't bypass the conversion, I just undo it
I had to do a search and replace BMP with DDS for some of the POV files for the newer zones so the texture names matched up. You have to make sure your version of max supports DDS textures first of course.
The latest maxscript on my site has support for transparency, it puts the same texture in the diffuse and opacity slots in max so you get the transparency in the viewport too.
K.