I have no idea, if this area is the right one. So generally I would like to ask if this is this the right places to give the Software Team some ideas for further improvement?
First of all, I will express my appreciation for this really cool piece of software. I really enjoyed to create some fine graphics stuff. With the years and a lot of praxis I found out, that I really miss some easy to implement, but very power- and usefull features. Therefore I write these suggestions, just to give you some input or nice ideas to improve this really great program!
1. Why I cannot have the render windows always on top? It would be great to have a simple tick as option in the render windows to tell Terragen, the render windows has to stay always on top! Often I just want to see how far the scene has rendered while working somewhwere else? Each time I have to make some clicks to bring the render window on top. This should be easy to implement and it would give me as user the benefit to have an eye on the current render, while working somewhere else.
2. Why I do not have just 2 windows in the render windows? One which shows the current render (1st), and another (2nd) to view the rendering before, so that I can see the changes. Always with a new scene you have to adjust or change the parameters. As user you always will find out, which chances occour in the rendering? It would be great to see exactely, what has happend while changing parameters? Therefore I suggest to implement this absolutely usefull feature in Terragen 4, which should be not so hard for you
I operate also with 3DsMax 2009 and VRay (a render software for 3dsmax). In VRay they have a feature implemented which they call frame buffer. It can be enabled in VRay and is really helpfull! While activated, a rendering can be saved to the framebuffer. When the next rendering with changed parameters is done, you can also save it to the frame buffer on top of the rendering before and so on... Then you can overlay 2 renderings and with a slider fading from one picture (A) to another (B) one. As user you see exactely which changes has occoured while moving the slider. It is like a fade from one picture (Picture A) into the other (Picture B). Within the stack, you can choose which picture is used as picture A and which one is used as picture B. To give you a better understanding, I made a screenshot from VRay inside 3DsMax 2009 with activated framebuffer. I simply changed the background color as a sample. It will be attached for your benefit :-)
3. Why I have to tell the render which camera shall be used for a rendering? I mean, ok, this feature is usefull, but normaly it should render exactely what I see in the previes window??? Just a simple "Render Preview" option within the render tab would be also a usefull feature as addional option. Why shall I first pick a camera, save the preview to that camera and finally have to assign that camera to the renderer. Mostly I just wanna have my current preview rendered? Is it not this way? You look for a cool perspective, and after all is ready to go you save your view to a new camera to capture your point of view. Without the whole hickhack (german figure of speeching for whisk)!!! I suggest therefore an implementation of a simple (just) "Render Preview" option inside the render tab. This would also a nice and really usefull feature, don't you agree?
4. In the render dialog there should be some predefined render dimensions. Ready predefined and just a click away. I always have to fill in my personal desired dimension here. Well... It is not hard to do, but I would highly appreciate some predfined render dimensions. Maybe these should be user defined via the preferences inside TG? I personally use the shrunked HDMI (17:9) Format with 480x270 with Detail of 0.2 and Anti Aliasing 0.2 for a fast and simple overview of the whole scenery. Then 960 x 540 for a better, more detailed view to figure out the finall settings and finally the highest possible resolution! So all in all there are 3 steps included for the final in my personal workflow. This is valid for users which use the wide screen format (HDMI) usually. The same should be posible for user with the older 4:3 screen format. Just 6 predefined dimension buttons in the render dialog would be great. Optional inside the preferences where a user can fill in his personal desired render dimensions with grade of Detail and Antialiasing. What a differance!
These are my first suggestions while starting to work with Terragen 3
Stormlord
www.dirkkipper.de