Terragen Sky

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

I see an Open Beta is available for Terragen Sky - Planetside sent me an email - where do I go to get it to test it? I did let my sub lapse. If I renew will it be available?

Will it do the Fisheye Camera - that Terragen has - that allows us to create sky domes for sims and such?

Thanks.

Regards,
Scott 

[WAS]

Hi Folks,

I see an Open Beta is available for Terragen Sky - Planetside sent me an email - where do I go to get it to test it? I did let my sub lapse. If I renew will it be available?

Will it do the Fisheye Camera - that Terragen has - that allows us to create sky domes for sims and such?

Thanks.

Regards,
Scott

It's already an HDRI tool/exporter, so no need for fisheye cameras, it should export equirectangular maps.

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Scott,

Terragen Sky Early Access is available to all users with an active subscription or Maintenance on Terragen 4 Creative or Terragen 4 Professional.  If your subscription or Maintenance has expired you'll need to renew it in order to run Terragen Sky Early Access. 

You'll find the download links under your registered user account, under the "View Details and Downloads" link in the Purchase History section.

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the information.


Hah - I always thought I had a pretty large vocabulary - had to lookup "equirectangular".


Perhaps this won't suit my needs?

I need the output in the following format for a free Open Source Train Simulator.

Terragen 4 Output:


Regards,
Scott

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Scott,

Currently you would need to export the Terragen Sky project to Terragen 4, then add a new camera, or modify an existing one, with the fisheye lens and 180 degree field of view to get the results you're looking for.  

Once you set up the new camera and renderer, you could save the nodes as a clip file.  This would speed up the process for subsequent scenes following this workflow as you would simply load the exported file then import the clip file containing the camera setup.

[WAS]

Hi Scott,

Currently you would need to export the Terragen Sky project to Terragen 4, then add a new camera, or modify an existing one, with the fisheye lens and 180 degree field of view to get the results you're looking for. 

Once you set up the new camera and renderer, you could save the nodes as a clip file.  This would speed up the process for subsequent scenes following this workflow as you would simply load the exported file then import the clip file containing the camera setup.

Ohh, it's only providing sky domes right now?

Any source for benefits of skydomes? I've never really looked into using them, but wondering if it's better. Honestly the image above looks of better quality then a equirectangular map (feel like it'd have less warpies too if it's not a perfect stitch/export).

[paq]

The advantage from Stereographic projection (image posted by Scott) is the obvious stitches free result on the pole. Usually it's better suited for FPS games where you want maximum details on that pole area (as the horizon is cover with 3d assets anyway). Racing games usually benefits from 'classic' 360 spherical projection, as you have more details on horizon line.

I'm not sure what terragen sky is aimed at. If it's to speed up sky look dev for full terragen scene I can understand the limitations. But if it's to generate full cg skies having this type of projection should be available in that 'special'version. (As well as .VDB export ... but I guess that one will never happens :O))

[WAS]

The advantage from Stereographic projection (image posted by Scott) is the obvious stitches free result on the pole. Usually it's better suited for FPS games where you want maximum details on that pole area (as the horizon is cover with 3d assets anyway). Racing games usually benefits from 'classic' 360 spherical projection, as you have more details on horizon line.

I'm not sure what terragen sky is aimed at. If it's to speed up sky look dev for full terragen scene I can understand the limitations. But if it's to generate full cg skies having this type of projection should be available in that 'special'version. (As well as .VDB export ... but I guess that one will never happens :O))

Oh that all makes total sense, thanks for that run down!

[Dune]

Sky is a work in progress in its very initial footsteps, so a lot will still be added, I suppose. My only hope is that it doesn't lure Matt away too much from GPU and other improvements on TG itself.

[Hannes]

Sky is a work in progress in its very initial footsteps, so a lot will still be added, I suppose. My only hope is that it doesn't lure Matt away too much from GPU and other improvements on TG itself.

Exactly my thoughts.

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for everyone's insights - much appreciated - Terragen Sky certainly looks good in the advertisements - I'll keep an eye on this and see how it all shakes out.

I ran that skydome pictured above at 10K by 10K it took me like two days to render. If anyone wants a closer look at full res - I can share it.

Regards,
Scott

[WinterLight]

I'm not sure what terragen sky is aimed at. If it's to speed up sky look dev for full terragen scene I can understand the limitations. But if it's to generate full cg skies having this type of projection should be available in that 'special'version. (As well as .VDB export ... but I guess that one will never happens :O))

I'm looking forward to using Sky to create HDR skydomes for rendering in other applications like Houdini. I've been using skydomes from online repositories of free images, but with Sky you get to design your own and you don't have to worry about the other stuff in the image, like mountains that get in the way of your own image.

VDB export will be a bonus though, because it's a lot easier to get much nicer looking clouds from Terragen than from Houdini.