Terragen 4.4.11.frontier

[Matt]

The first Frontier Build of Terragen 4.4 is out now for Windows, Mac and Linux render node. If you have an active license of Terragen 4 Professional or Creative, use the Check for Updates feature in the application to get links to the latest 4.4 build.

Here's the change log:

Build 4.4.11 (Frontier Build)


CHANGES TO RTP (RAY-TRACED PREVIEW)


The 3D Preview allows objects, lights and cameras to be manipulated when in RTP mode. Camera wireframes are drawn and handles are shown for objects and lights. When hovering over a handle, the object is drawn in the same way it is in non-RTP mode, according to the Object Display Mode (bounding box, wireframe, smooth shaded or textured).

Specular highlights (from direct lights) are rendered in RTP mode if shading is enabled.

Path Tracing can be enabled or disabled in RTP mode by clicking on the gold cup icon or by using the right-click menu (context menu) in the 3D Preview while in RTP mode.

RTP iteration limit is now 36 (it was 20 before).


PATH TRACING IMPROVEMENTS


Faster Path Tracing when combined with the Robust Adaptive Sampling. When rendering with the robust adaptive sampler, that path tracer optimises the samples of some elements of the lighting equation according to the noise levels detected in those elements, and also considers atmosphere, cloud, surface emission, surface direct to further optimise the samples.

Path tracer's max ray depth is now 5. (This will be controllable in future builds.)

Path tracer clamps albedo of individual components to 1 on all bounces except the first. This is necessary to be physically correct and to avoid extremely bright samples after multiple bounces.

Various other optimisations and quality tweaks.


FASTER, HIGHER QUALIY CLOUD G.I.


Cloud GI calculation is now much faster in scenes with high micropoly detail and/or high ray detail multiplier. This change comes at the expense of slightly reduced correctness which is unlikely to be noticeable in renders.

Slightly increased the spatial resolution of cloud GI (relative to the number of voxels), taking advantage of the faster calculation in this version.


FASTER, HIGHER QUALITY ROBUST ADAPTIVE SAMPLING


Two changes were made to the the Robust Adaptive Sampler (BETA) to produce better looking images in a shorter render time. We fixed an important bug in the way it handled colours, and implemented a new method of evaluating contrast. Both of these changes provide a better ratio of image quality to render time. The noise threshold might need calibrating in future builds, so we are still calling this feature Beta.


RENDER OUTPUT FILES


Rendered output filenames can include the following variables (Feature #611). The curly braces are optional but recommended for consistency with future syntax that may rely upon them:

• 
  ${BUILDNUMBER} // e.g. 4.4.09.1
  
• 
  ${IMAGETYPE} // same as IMAGETYPE, e.g. tgSurfDirect, tgCloudRgb etc. If used for the main output it will insert tgBeauty
  
• 
  ${RENDERSECONDS} // render time in seconds, e.g. 134
  
• 
  ${RENDERTIME} // render time formatted with hours, minutes and seconds (e.g. 1h07m24s), or without the hours if shorter than 1 hour, e.g. 02m14s
  
• 
  ${TGDNAME} // the name of the last saved or loaded TGD file, without the path and without the extension
  

The default output filename and extra output filename are "${TGDNAME}.%04d.tif" and "${TGDNAME}.${IMAGETYPE}.%04d.tif" respectively.

Output folders are verified and automatically created if necessary at the start of a render that outputs files. The render aborts if output folders don't exist after attempting to create them. (Feature #742)

Temporary/automatic render output files (the ones named "tgout") have a new filename format that includes the render time and the version of Terragen.

When tgSurfIndirectDiff is enabled in a render layer, two new elements tgSurfIndirectDiffRefl and trSurfIndirectDiffTrans are automatically output as well. When tgSurfIndirectSpec is enabled, two new elements tgSurfIndirectSpecRefl and tgSurfIndirectSpecTrans are automatically output as well. Please note that these images are not being properly generated in this build; they are always black.


MISCELLANEOUS


Corrected some flaws with motion blur when the pixel sampler is adaptive, by reverting to a random sampling strategy in this case.

Bump maps and displacement maps are read from OBJ MTL files and are applied to the displacement channel.

Populator V4 "terrain shader" and "object to sit on" inputs are hidden from the network view so that they don't draw connections. The change was made because terrain shader connections from every populator were causing a lot of ugliness in projects.

Steppers are provided in the GUI alongside many edit boxes.

Mac only: Some changes have been made to work better in the OS's dark mode, but this is still a work-in-progress. If you switch the OS between light mode and dark mode you should restart Terragen to allow it to adjust to the new mode. This change was also included in 4.3.23.

Constant Colour node has individual parameters to control red, green and blue values.

[sboerner]

Populator V4 "terrain shader" and "object to sit on" inputs are hidden from the network view so that they don't draw connections. The change was made because terrain shader connections from every populator were causing a lot of ugliness in projects.

Thanks, Matt. I would never have thought to request this, but it's a nice improvement. The node view is much less tangled and busy now.

Also appreciate the new output file variables. (Request: Variables to insert camera and renderer names would be handy, too.)

Running a few tests today with the new path tracer. Looking great so far. Rendering times are a bit shorter and shadow details are improved.

[D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)]

"Output folders are verified and automatically created if necessary at the start of a render that outputs files."
Thank you!  Thank You!!!

-Derek

[mhaze]

Thanks Matt, The loading of bump/displacement maps will be a real time saver.

[AP]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7QtBuyOXiI

[Matt]

That video shows a feature that hasn't been released yet: path traced transparency. But reflections are included in 4.4.11.

[Matt]

4.4.11.frontier is now available for macOS.

[Matt]

(Request: Variables to insert camera and renderer names would be handy, too.)

These will be included in 4.4.16.frontier, along with the name of the render layer.

[sboerner]

These will be included in 4.4.16.frontier, along with the name of the render layer.

Thanks, Matt. (And for the Mac build as well.)

[digitalguru]

It's good to see the new tokens for output file names - could there be an option in the future to have these burnt into the image if desired? (especially for automatic rendered output)

Would be great for debugging scenes and logging tests.

[Matt]

That would be great to have, but it's not in the near term plans.

[midnight.mangler]

Nice guys! Great to have specular part of the RTP and improvements to path tracing.