About Easy Clouds

[pclavett]

Hi guys !
Coming back to Terragen with version 4 and focusing on the clouds.....lots of change !
Trying to figure out the new "easy clouds" and there seem to be little available in the settings to determine the size and extent of the cloud size range as we did in the old system. Saw these these are still available though.....but note that the new system seems to give amazing results.
I examined the settings for the Easy Clouds Cumulus small and medium and there seems to be no difference in the settings despite very different results. Is there something inside the node that we do not see that determines the size Are some settings and options coming that will enable us to play around with this ? Have I missed the boat altogether with the settings that are available already
In any event, will start experimenting with the settings available and see what pops up !
These new clouds also seem to be labour intensive on the CPU and take a significantly longer time to render.....are there going to be some accelerations here
Sorry for all these pesky questions and have a great day !
Thanks.
Paul

[Dune]

They are fantastic clouds with lots going on under the hood, and from what I heard more tweakability may be coming later. They are also slower, due to everything being calculated under the hood. You have to figure out for yourself what you prefer, great clouds and long render time, or less great clouds and fast renders.

[pclavett]

Thank you Ulco for the info and I am experimenting right now to see what the various parameters do and will post my findings at some point ! I figured there was a "lot under the hood" going on and it is like that the various options of clouds have different parameters set inside the node.....not to be accessed.....at least for now !
Right now, I am also keeping tabs on the render times and will try it on my big Mac Pro to see if cores matter !
These clouds are so amazing that I will continue to use them rather than the vintage versions.
Will be interesting to get some insight from Oshyan or Matt on these subjects !
Take care !
Paul

[Oshyan]

The Easy Clouds are intended to have fewer parameters and be simpler to use. This does mean that there are fewer things you can adjust, including some scale parameters. This may or may not change. In a general sense if you want more control you should use the Generic clouds and build your own more complex density functions. This is what's going on "under the hood" with the Easy Clouds, and is part of the reason they take longer to render. Building your own density functions to equal the realism of Easy Cloud shapes is probably possible (the shading model is the same, it's the shapes, i.e. density functions, that differ), and then you'd have more control both over scale and other settings, as well as render time.

- Oshyan

[pclavett]

Again, thanks Oshyan for the info.
Trying to adjust the fractals to produce the results obtained with the "easy" version would probably take me more time than trying to work with the new.....so will continue to experiment and take notes !
Appreciated !
Paul

[PeterParker]

Hello all,

do i understand it right? Easy Clouds have just a few setup points? The only thing i´ve noticed is the greyed out Localizer.
As i understand it you can´t make clouds in the old way like in Terragen 3.
It´s only possible when you load an "old" project into version 4, there you have all the cloud-options.

Or am i completly wrong?

Best regards

Peter

[Kadri]

The old ones are still there.

http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,22061.msg222354.html#msg222354
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,22061.msg222327.html#msg222327

[pclavett]

As Kadri said, the old models are still there and in the list of "add cloud layer", the "generic" layers are of the old type.....and furthermore......contextual clicking (right click) will bring up all versions in the atmosphere listings.
Experimenting with the new modules has shown me that there are some very interesting possibilities with the new layers.
Below is my first sunset with these new clouds, 2 layers of EasyClouds and 1 layer of the old cirrus 2D.
Think the results are just amazing.....at least for a novice like myself !
The files for the results are available in the File Sharing section:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,22075.0.html
Hope that this may help some of the newbies.
Take care all !
Paul
[attach=1]

[Kadri]

That looks great.
The new clouds really deserve the "easy" name.

[bobbystahr]

Great 1st sky