Terragen Bible

Started by pixelpusher636, June 18, 2022, 09:56:50 PM

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pixelpusher636

Thanks Kevin, I've read the documentation which didn't really describe the icons.. I had hoped one of them was the magic bullet to ameliorate the problem both myself & aknight0 described. 

Thanks again Kevin!
The more I use Terragen, the more I realize the world is not so small.

KlausK

Back in the days before the RTP (TG v3.x) you had the possibility to open more 3D Preview Windows as floating window.
This functionality - sadly - was never brought back. In a thread back then Matt explained that this had to do with how the RTP works.
Having that you could have different point of views of the terrain you were working on and zoom in as far as you like. They were all independent
Perspective views - with any combination of shading - and the 3D Preview embedded in the main program window would show your render view.
Exactely what I (one) needed to work faster and more efficent. Everything in only one view needs lots of clicking and changing pov and resetting...

On a personal note...
This feels like beating a dead horse (is that the expresion ::) ) but I for one would happily give back the RTP for that functionality.
Together with a cropped render this gave much more reliable results. Since the RTP is off very often and the preview to get to it rather slow (at least on my computer) I barely use it and render crops anyway...

CHeers, Klaus

(--) shutting up again

/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

Kevin Kipper

The online documentation for the Shader Preview has been updated.

https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Shader_Preview

KlausK

Hi Kevin, thx for that.

These only appear AFTER you do a RMB click on the Shader Preview and choose: "Open in New Window"
Then the Shader Preview Window looks like you describe. Or I am still looking in the wrong place...


Main Menu[edit]
Across the top of the Shader preview are three drop down menus for Edit, View, and Window.

Edit options: In the Shader preview window, only the Undo option is available. The remaining options are ghosted out and only available in the 3D Preview.
  • Undo: This item will undo previous changes made in this window. To see a listing of all previous changes which can be undone, use the Undo History window, which is opened from the View menu.
View options:
  • Open New 3d preview in tab: When selected a 3D Preview based on the current render camera is opened in a new tab of the Shader preview.



I was looking for that in the "normal" interface. I never new these option existed  :-[ ::)
Call me silly but I find that a little bit confusing.

CHeers, Klaus



/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

Mid-Knight Acchan

This is a report of a crash in Shader Preview.
In Shader Preview windws, if I add "Open New 3D Preview in tab" and then select the camera object in it and move it, it crashes for sure.
At Build (4.6.11).
Does anyone else have the same symptoms besides me?
I started 3D landscape with "Bryce" and am currently editing Japanese Wiki as a Terragen user. I am riding the Kawasaki ZEPHYR1100. I am a reader.

KlausK

I can confirm that.
Tried 10-15 times and everytime I got "Terragen 4 has stopped working" popup.
Also happens when I move something else in "New 3D Preview in tab", like a simple shape shader.

When I fire off a render and the  "New 3D Preview in tab" is open, TG crashes as well.

I am on TG 4.5.7.1 (and Win 7).

CHeers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

Kevin Kipper

The online documentation has been updated to reflect Klaus's observation that the 3 menu items appear on the Shader Preview window once it's been opened in a new window.

The reports of various crashes that can occur when a new 3D Preview window is opened as a new tab in the Shader Preview, have been noted and reproduced.  

Personally, I've found that clicking on the "Pause" button for open viewports that don't need to be interactively updating all the time, decreases the chance of Terragen crashing.  Clearly this is not ideal, but may be helpful in certain circumstances where you need additional viewports.  It probably goes without saying to save your project often if working with multiple viewports.

KlausK

Thank you!

Of course, I do not know anything about the inner workings of TG program code I can say for sure that the problems with
multiple 3D preview windows open started with the introduction of the RTP. Before that it simply did not crash.
Even though the RTP is not actively (aka running in the Camera-view) involved in my tests my - completely uninformed - theory is
that its code interferes with any preview window under the hood.

Anyway, don`t take that (me) too serious here, as you said: save often, often save!

CHeers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

Balletdude

Quote from: Kevin Kipper on June 20, 2022, 12:38:22 PMHi Everyone,

Whether a book is published or not, I think that pixelpusher636's comment "I seriously want to learn TG ..." accurately reflects what many Terragen users desire, and echoes my own experience as well. 

For example, I've often looked at the node network example images accompanying the forum threads and wondered to myself, "What's the thought process that goes on behind all this?  I don't even know where to begin."  I've even mentioned this to Matt and Cris a number of times.

Over the past year we've been updating the online documentation for each node in Terragen and during this process, new ideas have arisen on how best to illustrate the many ways in which a given node can be used.  Some of the newer updates include a section at the end of the technical descriptions called "Fun With ..." and it's here that we hope to address the practical, and perhaps not so apparent uses of each node in order to unlock their full potential.  This is an example: https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Get_Position_in_Texture

Here's the thing; as I've update the documentation I've actually begun to think in "blue nodes", that is to understand when and where to use a mathematical function in order to get the creative and artistic look I'm after...and if I can learn that, anyone can.

So just for fun, periodically click on the "?" button that's available on each of Terragen's features or nodes to open the online documentation and see if there's something new.  Please feel free to message me with any topics, ideas, or examples that might be good to include in the documentation and I'll do my best to see that it gets incorporated so that we all can seriously learn Terragen!
Just inboxed you and sent a link to a tgd file with some of the work I've done with blue nodes

Simon