Pretty much all of those applications render in a different way than TG2 does. This is something that many people don't realize, but in order to render highly detailed terrain as fast as it does, TG2 works in unique ways. Other applications can be faster at some things, especially things like reflections, object rendering, transparency, etc. because their rendering methods excel at this (raytracing being the most common approach which encompasses all those effects). TG2 does now use raytracing for certain scene elements where it is more effective (e.g. imported 3D objects), but raytracing is not the primary rendering method. Try doing the same level of detail that TG2 accompishes in another app, from space to centimeter ground level. As far as I've heard and seen there really is no other program that can match TG2 in that way, including Vue which seems to slow down quite a lot using procedurals.
In any case partly because of these differences we can't necessarily just take an established rendering technique off the shelf and put it in TG2 and expect it to work correctly (and at a reasonable speed).
- Oshyan
