Terragen 2 Release Announcement Discussion

Started by Oshyan, December 12, 2007, 07:10:04 PM

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JimB

Quote from: Fenring on February 07, 2008, 12:08:24 PM
While i appreciate the new information, If i have to speak my mind ill say this technology preview release is just bad PR, i use the old terragen for texture making in the battlefield 2 series (with a little help from photoshop) and had great hopes for terragen 2 to improve in this department but also to make skydomes that would be signifigantly better than in old TG, but since the render times are so long and many of the atmosphere features undocumented i find it incredibly incredibly frustrating to work with.
....With times of learning and render speed like this the TG2 preview is for my production completely useless! I had great hopes for the beta and was confident that now i could finaly write a tutorial about skybox making in this program, unfortunately it didnt happen.
....This may sound very harsh but I think Planetside should get feedback from all sorts of users, maybe my expectations very to high (since the old terragen was so good) and maybe people who work with terragen 2 for other purposes than mine get more out of it.
I'd say you've learned a valuable lesson: Never commit to using any software version on a job without making sure it can do the job first, or make sure your schedule can accommodate big delays due to crashes or release delays. There are 3D apps out there costing £2000+ whose previous to last versions are being used in productions I know of, not latest versions, because of bugs, stability issues, etc. Essentially, their delays are even longer in practice, but the difference is they release when they shouldn't to avoid the so-called "bad PR" and fulfil contractual obligations.

As far as I'm concerned, kudos to a company that says they're delaying a release rather than inflict misery on a production in the form of a bad version. Few remember a release delay (you schedule for using the previous version, and deliver earlier if the next release comes in during production), but everyone remembers a bad release (you sleep at work to babysit renders).
Some bits and bobs
The Galileo Fallacy, 'Argumentum ad Galileus':
"They laughed at Galileo. They're laughing at me. Therefore I am the next Galileo."

Nope. Galileo was right for the simpler reason that he was right.

mr-miley

Our company are beta testers for a geotechnical graphical database which we use to record all our geotechnical data taken from site. Without this software we cannot function. I had to think long and herd about this, weighing up the benefits / down sides before I recomended we went with it. Our industry has whats called Liquidated Damages, where you may have to pay £300/£400/£500 A DAY for every day you are late with your report to your client!
Benefits:- we get about £4000 of software for free, we also get some of the best technical support in the software world, and we get it there and then (well, within reason, depending upon how nasty the bugs are that we find  ;D ) We (I) get to request features that suit us (I think that at the last count, the software now incorporates 16 features / functions that I have asked for). The software is also updated at least once a month (both beat and shrinkwrap), sometimes with maintenance releases and sometimes adding new features / functions.
Down side:- If we do come across a bug (or in Microsoft terms, a feature) we are stuffed till its fixed. Also I'm constantly having to update our input and output to take into account new features and functions. (Not like if you bought the shrinkwrap version, where its all there for you in one go)

My point is, If you choose to use a beta version of a piece of software professionally, don't do it lightly. If you do choose to go down that route, you MUST realise that there will be times when its a pain in the arse, when things don't work (or they do work but give results that were not expected) At the end of the dat TGTP is a beta, if you don't like that, then don't use it for anything mission critical unless you are prepared for delays etc. As with any other piece of software, I would rater have a stable, workable shrinkwrap, than one that is released on time but is full of bugs (sorry, features  ;D )

Miles
I love the smell of caffine in the morning

Arandil

I'll be here when TG2 is ready.  Actually I'm here now, so I'll be here both before and when TG2 is ready.   Wait, I'll be here both before, during and after TG2 is ready.  No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

DYN_DaTa

What about a developer's 'diary' or some kind of roadmap to know about what's being implemented, to-do lists, render times and multi-core improvements and so on?.

As far as i know, latest update announcement was on September 27, 2007 (5 months ago)  :-\

nikita

If your looking for announcements, you might find them in the "Announcements" section of this forum:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=13.0
:)

sjefen

Quote from: DYN_DaTa on February 15, 2008, 02:24:49 PM
What about a developer's 'diary' or some kind of roadmap to know about what's being implemented, to-do lists, render times and multi-core improvements and so on?.

I like this idea. That way we don't need to ask so many questions all the time. We can just read what they are working on.

Quote from: DYN_DaTa on February 15, 2008, 02:24:49 PM
As far as i know, latest update announcement was on September 27, 2007 (5 months ago)  :-\

We got a update from Matt in this thread on page 18.
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zionner

On a slightly diffrent note:

When I made that workaround for the bug in the planet surface shader, Oshyan posted saying certian buggy nodes may be taken out of TG 2, at this point in the Beta build is that shader still included?!?!

and If so has any improvements/bug fixes been made to it?

Oshyan

We haven't done the shader selection pass yet, so nothing much has changed in this regard. Those decisions will be made shortly. I can't say whether the Planet Surface Shader will still be included unfortunately. But I can say that it hasn't been improved or fixed yet and it's unlikely to be before final release.

- Oshyan

Quote from: zionner on February 15, 2008, 03:38:17 PM
On a slightly diffrent note:

When I made that workaround for the bug in the planet surface shader, Oshyan posted saying certian buggy nodes may be taken out of TG 2, at this point in the Beta build is that shader still included?!?!

and If so has any improvements/bug fixes been made to it?

zionner

Quote from: Oshyan on February 15, 2008, 10:54:56 PM
We haven't done the shader selection pass yet, so nothing much has changed in this regard. Those decisions will be made shortly. I can't say whether the Planet Surface Shader will still be included unfortunately. But I can say that it hasn't been improved or fixed yet and it's unlikely to be before final release.

- Oshyan


Right, so say it gets taken out of beta and the release, can we expect to see it added in an update after release?

Oshyan

If it were taken out I really don't know if it would be brought back later. The simple fact is it is an extremely basic, problematic and quirky node and any such error-prone and limited-use node is likely to be removed for support and stability reasons. I understand that you find it useful but compared to the amount of complaints and questions it has generated, its evident usefulness overall seems quite low. It was developed as an experiment and included in the Technology Preview as part of the overall experimental nature of the release. As many other things have evolved and been changed or even removed over the lifecycle of the Technology preview due to testing and feedback, so too may this be affected, and if so it would be for the overall greater good of the end product.

- Oshyan

Will

Will the crater shader be fixed or is that out too?
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.

Oshyan

What needs to be fixed about the crater shader?

- Oshyan

Will

only works around 0,0,0 you can't put them on the sides on planets.
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.

dandelO

Quote from: Will on February 18, 2008, 06:16:11 AM
only works around 0,0,0 you can't put them on the sides on planets.

In fact, Will, you can!
My little planet render 'dandinO' has a crater shader on the very side of the planet.

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3187.0

Will

hmm didn't last time I used it, but whatever you proved me wrong.
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.