Terragen Sky features request

[Senorpablo]

Trying out Terragen Sky to create skydomes for a realtime 3d application. Getting some good results so far. Have run into a couple of issues.

There are a couple of features that would be useful to me, and perhaps others:

• Increase max render resolution to 16k or 32k - this is the minimum number needed to support 4k target output resolution with a 60 degree camera FOV.
• Provide a user definable ground color - this would allow for colors that are more practical than the default of black.

[denders]

For my use, the user selected ground color would be good.

[zaxxon]

At this point in it's development I believe that TGSky is best utilized in conjunction with TG. So many of the feature requests are already available by sending the TGSky output as a clip file to TG proper for further refinement.  Maybe at some point it will be a standalone product, but for now to utilize the full power of TGSky it is best partnered with the full range of Terragen's robust toolset.

[Senorpablo]

At this point in it's development I believe that TGSky is best utilized in conjunction with TG. So many of the feature requests are already available by sending the TGSky output as a clip file to TG proper for further refinement.  Maybe at some point it will be a standalone product, but for now to utilize the full power of TGSky it is best partnered with the full range of Terragen's robust toolset.

I think TG Sky makes sense as a simpler, more focused stand alone product. Personally, I'd prefer to not have to add another, more complex, application into the pipeline if I don't need to. Others may feel the same. 

The features I requested should be fairly trivial to incorporate. 

I appreciate the suggestion for the workaround. 

[Matt]

Hi Senorpablo, welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the feature requests. Both of these will be added soon.

[noahding1]

[font=PingFang SC, Segoe UI, Arial, Microsoft YaHei, 微软雅黑, 宋体, Malgun Gothic, sans-serif]It would be great if Terragen Sky could import into TG and export VDB in layers inside TG![/font]

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi noahding1,

You can export the Terragen Sky project as a Terragen file (TGD) or Terragen clip file (TGC) via the Export tab.  Terragen clip files can be imported into an existing Terragen project file.

Cloud layers can be exported in VDB format by right clicking on the cloud layer node and selecting "Export VDB File".

[Senorpablo]

Hi Senorpablo, welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the feature requests. Both of these will be added soon.

Looking forward to the added functionality. Any estimates on when they might be available?

Thanks!

[Matt]

Looking forward to the added functionality. Any estimates on when they might be available?

There will be an update in the next few days to allow spherical render resolutions up to 16k, and maybe higher. I am currently debugging a performance issue with renders over 4k (they render slower than they should do). Once I've solved that I will upload the new build.

[Matt]

There's a new build today:

Build 2023-05-07.01

- Spherical output supports resolutions up to 16k (with a Professional license).
- Improved the speed of renders, especially at higher resolutions.
- Ctrl+O opens the Open File dialog.
- Ctrl+S opens the Save File As dialog (for the project).
- File save dialogs update the filename extension to match the file type filter.
- Better error reporting when a render fails.
- Hovering the mouse over some error text shows the full text in the main window's status bar.
- Buttons and tabs are shaded with more salient edges when hovered over.

The max is 16k for now. It crashes for me if I try anything higher. I think this is probably a bug, not a limitation of my test hardware, so I'm going to look into that before enabling anything higher than 16k.

@Senorpablo @denders I haven't added the user-definable ground colour yet. Can you tell me what your use case is? I can imagine a few uses for this, such as bounce light on the clouds, or for green-screening the clouds in lieu of an alpha channel, but let me know if there's something else you need it for. That will help us design a better UI for it. In future we should be able to attach shaders to the ground plane and I'd like there to be some presets, including an ocean preset.

[Senorpablo]

There's a new build today:

Build 2023-05-07.01

- Spherical output supports resolutions up to 16k (with a Professional license).
- Improved the speed of renders, especially at higher resolutions.
- Ctrl+O opens the Open File dialog.
- Ctrl+S opens the Save File As dialog (for the project).
- File save dialogs update the filename extension to match the file type filter.
- Better error reporting when a render fails.
- Hovering the mouse over some error text shows the full text in the main window's status bar.
- Buttons and tabs are shaded with more salient edges when hovered over.

The max is 16k for now. It crashes for me if I try anything higher. I think this is probably a bug, not a limitation of my test hardware, so I'm going to look into that before enabling anything higher than 16k.

@Senorpablo @denders I haven't added the user-definable ground colour yet. Can you tell me what your use case is? I can imagine a few uses for this, such as bounce light on the clouds, or for green-screening the clouds in lieu of an alpha channel, but let me know if there's something else you need it for. That will help us design a better UI for it. In future we should be able to attach shaders to the ground plane and I'd like there to be some presets, including an ocean preset.

Trying the new build out right now. I'd be happy to test out a build with resolutions above 16k if that would be helpful as another data point. 

As for the ground plane color, in my case it's just more convenient to be able to tailor the ground color to match a specific scene or use case. For example, if I'm working on a desert scene, I'd like the ground plane to be a light tan color, rather than ocean blue. I'm typically using spherical HDRI's in offline and real-time rendering where they provide the background and lighting for a scene. For real-time, it's especially nice to have the ground color in the skydome match the scene, in the event there are any holes in the environment geometry. If the skydome reasonably matches the environment, any holes or seams in the ground won't stand out. Additionally, sometimes the ground plane in a spherical HDRI is all that's needed for the below horizon screen area in things like product shots or scenes where the mid to background can be a simple color that blends to the foreground. 

[Matt]

Thanks @Senorpablo, that makes sense.

[Senorpablo]

The max is 16k for now. It crashes for me if I try anything higher. I think this is probably a bug, not a limitation of my test hardware, so I'm going to look into that before enabling anything higher than 16k.

In the meantime, I tried exporting a scene from Sky and importing to Terragen for rendering. I was not able to render at 32k in Terragen. Sometimes it looks like it finishes and the frame buffer seems complete, but it doesn't save the image and seems to hang.

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Senorpablo,

In Terragen 4, under the Renderer settings, click on the GI Settings button to bring up the Render GI settings window.  Then make sure "GI surface details" is disabled under the Image Pass tab.  Also, disable any of the post-process filters in the Post Effects section of the Renderer's Filter tab.

[Senorpablo]

Hi Senorpablo,

In Terragen 4, under the Renderer settings, click on the GI Settings button to bring up the Render GI settings window.  Then make sure "GI surface details" is disabled under the Image Pass tab.  Also, disable any of the post-process filters in the Post Effects section of the Renderer's Filter tab.

That worked. Thanks!