Terragen 2 Release Announcement Discussion

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

Previous topic - Next topic

nikita

Ok... then I got another idea. But I really have NO idea if it will work like this, cause I don't have a Mac.
1. Send OSX into hibernation while rendering.
2. Next time, boot Windows, and when your finished doing what you had to do
3. boot osx again and it will start from where it stopped

Alternative: Use a virtual machine. (I got no experience with that kind of stuff either though.)

efflux

Just tested this latest version under Linux Wine. It works and finds two logical CPUs on my HT machine. Render times are very much slower than on Windows though. Much bigger differentiation than with the last version. I have a Mac though which I usually use with TG2. The new version is obviously much faster on my Twin core 2.0 GHz G5 but it is actually a little slower at rendering than on my Windows 3.0 GHz HT machine. My Mac has caught up but not overtaken my very old PC. This is not very good but both versions are faster anyway and I'm happy with the Mac improvements overall. It's pleasant to use compared to the previous slow UI version.

Oshyan

We don't currently differentiate between real and HT "cores"/CPU's, so on HT systems I would suggest only rendering with 1 thread (set maximum threads to 1). I'm not sure if that will help with performance in Linux, but it's generally a good policy anyway.

- Oshyan

neuspadrin

Just outa curiosity, will there be more alpha releases to the public before beta? or will the next update be a beta?  personally if you guys still need the time before beta id love another alpha release after you get rid of some more bugs (like the ones RenderMore() ones that occur almost every 10-20 minutes).

Anyways, thanks for the alpha though! It works great, just currently have to save after i do pretty much each step cause it could start crashing at anytime.  but otherwise works beautifully.  its not too hard to open a new window and reload ;) .

Oshyan

Just to clear up any confusion this release is not technically an "alpha" - it's another "Technology Preview"; release 3 to be precise.

We may release another update to registered users prior to the beta to fix some of the memory issues, but the beta is really our next big step and we're working hardest toward that goal.

- Oshyan

neuspadrin

Oh ok, thanks.  Well, the tech preview release 3 is now to occupy my time now that finally done with classes ;).  It killed me that you guys released it right before my exams when I had to study but I knew there was new shiny version just waiting for me.

zionner

Quote from: Oshyan on May 07, 2008, 10:16:47 PM
Just to clear up any confusion this release is not technically an "alpha" - it's another "Technology Preview"; release 3 to be precise.

We may release another update to registered users prior to the beta to fix some of the memory issues, but the beta is really our next big step and we're working hardest toward that goal.

- Oshyan

So, At this point how diffrent is the Beta compared to the TGTP3?

nvseal

Quote from: neuspadrin on May 07, 2008, 11:16:49 PM
Oh ok, thanks.  Well, the tech preview release 3 is now to occupy my time now that finally done with classes ;).  It killed me that you guys released it right before my exams when I had to study but I knew there was new shiny version just waiting for me.

My sentiments exactly.  ;D

Oshyan

The beta, when released, will most notably include undo support and enhancements to memory usage (particularly for those with 64 bit OS's and CPU's, or anyone who has turned on the /3GB switch).

- Oshyan

neuspadrin

Awesome, I'm running 64 bit vista ultimate, and I occasionally hit ctrl + z and then realize I have to go in manually and try to re-nudge to where i wanted it. 

Can't wait :)

Oshyan

I'm running Vista Business x64 and I can tell you that the large address support really makes a huge difference (that and the fixes for the memory leak ;D). Really complex scenes are now much more possible (insane population counts for example), and higher resolution renders should also be much more stable too.

- Oshyan

zionner


bertrand

That's all very good news. Thanks to the new version, I've fired up Terragen for the first time in months (perhaps years) and find it very enjoyable. Water still takes an insane amount of time to render, even on four cores, but we're clearly getting there. So thanks guys for keeping at it. With the memory leak fixed and 64-bit support (I need to render at quite high res) I honestly can't think of anything vital that would need urgent improvement, apart from my Terragen skills that is...

nikita

Quote from: bertrand on May 10, 2008, 11:46:28 AM
With the memory leak fixed and 64-bit support (I need to render at quite high res)
The image is not what's consuming significant amounts of memory.. those are only a few mb in size.

PG

Yeah but the higher the resolution the more quads that need to be rendered and therefore the more memory that needs to be used in order to process it all.

Question: Does a large cache affect renders at all. I've got 6mb cache on a 3GHz core 2 duo 45nm processor.
Figured out how to do clicky signatures