Terragen 4.6.11.frontier (Windows and Linux)

[pokoy]

RTP cloud preview:
I have to say that the new cloud voxel behavior in RTP is not helping *at all*. It's been a hit and miss before but still somewhat similar to the render most of the time, now it's always way off. I'm not getting anything close to what the render result is and most of the time it's just a white/grey patch without any details or shadows. Waiting doesn't improve it much, and doesn't make sense considering we had a much closer RTP preview in previous version right from the start after a few seconds already.

Also, this build renders slower than most previous builds going back 3 years. The render times for the attached file are:
I did some tests, please have a look at the attached screenshots, it should be self-explanatory. Tgd file is attached, too (originally created in 4.4.18 frontier, I believe).

TG 4.2.10 - 9:40 mins
TG 4.3.23 - 8:39 mins
TG 4.4.18 - 8:45 mins
TG 4.4.45 - 8:46 mins
TG 4.4.67 - 8:45 mins
TG 4.5.60 - 8:51 mins
TG 4.6.11 - 9:07 mins

...it looks like TG got faster with 4.3 but slightly slower with each new version after that.

VDB export:
Thank you for finally adding this in the window build - much appreciated. I would like to request a few things:
- a way to swap Y/Z axis for the exported vdb file (some apps use Z up)
- a way to override coordinates. Some apps will have problems with large distances from origin. Not much of a problem for TG but can cause all kinds of headaches in other apps and renderers. Having a way to override all coordinates to 0/0/0 would be good to have in those cases
- export multiple cloud layers into one file, if possible

[Matt]

Just FYI, the Version Check feature in Creative is giving me an error message "For some reason the Software Update version check was unsuccessful. Please try later.". Coming from 4.5.6

Do you think it might be getting blocked by a firewall?

[Matt]

RTP cloud preview:
I have to say that the new cloud voxel behavior in RTP is not helping *at all*. It's been a hit and miss before but still somewhat similar to the render most of the time, now it's always way off. I'm not getting anything close to what the render result is and most of the time it's just a white/grey patch without any details or shadows. Waiting doesn't improve it much, and doesn't make sense considering we had a much closer RTP preview in previous version right from the start after a few seconds already.

Thanks for reporting this, and especially for providing a TGD file. The issue seems to be the very long lens with 2 degrees FOV, and this is something the new mode doesn't handle well. I'll think about what I can do to improve this.

[pokoy]

Hi Matt, thanks for the pointer - however, almost all of my tests with more common lenses show the same behavior, in most cases it's worse than what we had before. Attaching three more test scenes and screenshots.
Out of the four tests I did only one scene seems to show a slight improvement (test_3), but even the old behavior was good enough. To be honest I'd rather see this change rolled back, there's no point in keeping it when what we had before did a much better job. With the new behavior we will *always* have to render a final, it's just not reliable.

What about my VDB requests? Do you think you could get the coordinates=0/0/0 and axis swap implemented somehow?

[RogueNZ]

Just FYI, the Version Check feature in Creative is giving me an error message "For some reason the Software Update version check was unsuccessful. Please try later.". Coming from 4.5.6

Do you think it might be getting blocked by a firewall?

No, it shouldn't be, I'm running standard Windows 10 with no additional software... this is also the first time I have been unable to access a version update through the app.

[Matt]

@RogueNZ , thanks for providing more detail in the private message.

There was a bug in the update checker for the Creative edition. That is fixed now.

Also, if any of you previously saw the dialog that says: "Your Maintenance Has Expired. The latest update is 4.6.11. You can renew your maintenance to get this update. Click below to see what's new." Clicking on the button had been sending you to a page that showed 4.5.71, not 4.6.11. We've fixed that now, so you can click "View Latest Update..." to see the change log for 4.6.11 before deciding whether to renew your maintenance.

[WAS]

I am definitely tempted to save for a renal. Love the VDB export. May wait for UV texture export update. Been wanting to do so much with VDB stuffs.

Great update! Hope this is a productive year .

[Jeremy]

Please tell me how to export VDB sequence ?

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Jeremy,

We're working on this feature to export a sequence of vdb files.

I've not tested this but I imagine for now you would manually have to do this by advancing the frame and exporting the vdb file.

[Jeremy]

Ok i understand. Thank you for this update. I liked that the rendering speed increased for atmo\clouds. One of my scene rendered 6:51 per frame, now 6:15

[raymoh]

A shy request:
Meanwhile, a few months have passed since the announcement of the Frontier build 4.6.11. When can we expect the final version and especially what about the Mac version?
Here of course always the same fears from us Mac users:
How long will there be Mac versions of Terragen? Apple won't wait for you, at some point the "older" Terragen versions might not run on the new machines anymore... and if they do, they will probably be quite slow, because not adapted to the new (M1 M2 MPro etc.) chips.

[Matt]

A shy request:
Meanwhile, a few months have passed since the announcement of the Frontier build 4.6.11. When can we expect the final version and especially what about the Mac version?

A new Frontier build is coming out this week for Windows, which improves upon cloud rendering in the 3D previews. That's currently in alpha testing.

The Mac build is almost ready, but we still need to implement OpenVDB on the Mac (it should be straightforward). Expect it in the next 2-3 weeks.

Final Release builds of 4.6 for both Mac and Windows are expected in the next 3-4 weeks.

Here of course always the same fears from us Mac users:
How long will there be Mac versions of Terragen? Apple won't wait for you, at some point the "older" Terragen versions might not run on the new machines anymore... and if they do, they will probably be quite slow, because not adapted to the new (M1 M2 MPro etc.) chips.

Apple's approach to backward and forward compatibility is unfortunate (I'm mostly talking about OS and dev toolchains, which put extra pressure on developers).

We're committed to releasing Mac versions for the foreseeable future, even though there is sometimes a delay between Windows and Mac, especially with Frontier builds. I don't have a timeline for when we will specifically target M chips, but that will happen. In the mean time, performance under Rosetta seems pretty good compared with Windows and Linux builds, but I'm looking forward to seeing how much faster a dedicated build will be.