Terragen 4 is in Development!

Started by Oshyan, December 11, 2015, 06:43:36 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

RichTwo

When T3 came out, I threw in the towel and called it the end for my hobby of digitally rendered landscapes, probably forever.  I was still struggling with T2 and to me I just couldn't see my starting over from scratch.

I got notice via email of the pending release of Terragen 4 and got somewhat curious.  There is the promise of it being easier to use, and an erosion plug-in is included.  I am pensive about getting T3, then upgrading to 4.  And I know there won't be a discount for my being a T2 owner, so one of my questions is of the price of T4 upon its release.

Also I'd like to know how much easier will it be to use.  T2 to me was (and still is) so complicated, I felt I needed a mathematics degree to understand it. Will there be some kind of user's guide?  Believe me, I need someone to literally hold my hand when it comes to procedurals.

Terragen is unmatched when it comes to landscape rendering, and the Planetside team has always given top-notch support.  My problem has never been with either - it has always been with myself and my limitation of comprehending.  So I would like to know more of what to expect.  There is a chance I may get back into the game.

Thanks!
They're all wasted!

Kadri

#16
The previewer looks sweet :) Curious how much real difference i will see on my own system in comparison to TG 3.
I think there is no GPU involved ? Will it be,in TG4 ?

Oshyan

#17
Rich, the User Interface will be similar to Terragen 2 and 3, but we're working on some changes that would make it easier to use (simpler methods for editing some things, faster preview to get better feedback on your changes, etc.). Documentation is always a work-in-progress with our tiny team, but certainly there are more resources now than when you were first trying TG2 and 3. In particular Martin's TG getting started videos: http://www.cgscenery.com/basic/
And GeekAtPlay's set of video tutorials:
http://geekatplay.com/terragen-tutorials.php (the Discover Terragen set is available to watch for free on YouTube)

I'm also planning to do a video for Renderosity that will help Terragen Classic users learn how to use Terragen 3/4. With the new ray-traced preview shown earlier in this thread I think working with TG4 will be a lot more pleasant than any previous version of Terragen.

Pricing is not finalized yet, but we are not planning a large price increase, so you can view Terragen 3 pricing as fairly representative.

Kadri, what are your system specs? I've got an overclocked i7 quad core at 4.2Ghz - which is fast but it's a few years old and only 4 cores - and the ray-traced preview works very well for me. It does not use the GPU currently but that may be possible in the future, in which case it could be even faster. :D

- Oshyan

Kadri

#18

Oshyan, i have a quad I7 2600K -not overclocked- with 32 GB RAM.
I know that GPU support is quite another thing but it would be nice because i have a Nvidia GTX970 that works nicely with some other software for example.

Oshyan

I've arranged a little forum exclusive for you guys. :D Here's a video of the new ray-traced preview running on my Core i7 2600k at 4.2Ghz (overclocked). You can imagine that even on a non-overclocked quad core the performance would be quite good.


- Oshyan

Rumburak


Kadri


That looks nice, thanks Oshyan.
Waiting for cloud preview now.You know some other guys are curious too about that like in the Lightwave forum  ;)

TheBadger

#22
thanks for the fast answer guys. Its good news.
It has been eaten.

AP

I have a non-overclocked quad core so i suppose i'm good enough.

mhaze

Great Stuff - looking forward to this.

Upon Infinity

My quad isn't overclocked, but it is overworked.  :-\

pokoy

Really excited to see the iterative rendering. I hoped you'd add it at some point but always thought it would require a renderer rewrite so didn't think it would be in TG4 - great! This will be a huge time saver.

Are you planning on adding some frame buffer improvements? I really love how some render engines allow to change exposure, contrast and tone mapping (like highlight compression) after the render is finished in an interactive way. Also, just like it's really important in landscape photography, having a Kelvin color balance paramter would be awesome. In some lighting conditions, it's really nice to be able to balance against too much blue or orange with a simple color temperature parameter, having it work in an interactive way on the preview and the final render would be even more useful.

Also, any improvements to the render engine and shadows? Well defined contact shadows as well as accurate GI are hard to achieve in TG and shadowed areas quickly look very flat which makes it hard or even impossible to get rid of the CG look.

Oshyan

All will be revealed in time, but I think it's safe to say that at least some of your wishes may come true. ;)

- Oshyan

TheBadger

Quote from: Oshyan on December 20, 2015, 11:24:53 PM
All will be revealed in time, but I think it's safe to say that at least some of your wishes may come true. ;)

- Oshyan

Its almost christmas, Oshyan, any more info coming for the holiday? A little nugget or two is quite fun. I am one of those people who enjoys the previews of movies long before the film is released.

By the way, I saw Star Wars today. I am sure I saw some TG work, I will be curious to know if I am right about which shots were what. They all looked great though. On the other side of it, the movie was really terrible, sorry. But the FX work was really good as usual.

Looking forward to Avatar2 ;)
It has been eaten.

AP

There is probably little to no doubt the planets were all Terragen but the terrains, we shall know soon enough.