Not new to Terragen but new to TG2 - and needing some guidance

[BlueRose]

Well I followed the "How to make your first image" tut and managed to fluke a nice image at the end of it.  I guess I wasnt thinking about what I was doing, just following the instructions

The last time I seriously used TG I think the latest release was 0.84 or of similar vintage.  I did download ver 0.9x with all the new changes but was so freaked out I didnt invest much time in it.

After seeing some of the fabulous images being generated by many talented artists, I have been enticed back to have another go.  But I am floundering trying to get my head around some key points of difference between the old and the new (note I have printed off lots of the tuts, and read pretty much all of them but Im not finding clear answers to address my issues)

So apologies if these issues have already been asked and answered heaps of times already, but I am really STUCK!

My first issue is context and orientation of the sun-camera-terrain.  I am really lost without the old way of doing it, where you had an aerial view of the terrain, and you could see where the sun was and move it around to how you needed to, and you could also see where the camera was, and could move everything in relation to itself.

That preview option appears to have gone and I am finding myself really struggling without it.  The old way (and this is how I percieved it) was the terrain was a fixed item, and you could move the camera around over it.

The new way appears the camera is fixed and we move the terrain underneath it? Anyway, I can cope with moving the camera (although having to hold down the alt key all the time is annoying), what I cant seem to do is position the sun in relation to the terrain and the camera.  In one helpful comment in a tut it says that a good position is slight behind and to the left of the camera.  If I cant see the sun in relation to the camera how do I do that?  There is a slider which is in 360 deg which is fine, but how do I tell where 0 is?

I guess Im saying Im really struggling to orient myself and therefore everything else as a result.  Any advice on this much appreciated.

Other questions:

Whats the difference between a heightfield and a terrain.  Im guessing a heightfield is something you can apply to a terrain?

Whats the difference between a layer and a shader - I understand layers, thats the old way, what I dont quite grok is the potential relationship between the two - what they achieve separately from each other, and presumably if combined together

Is there anyway to tweak the preview image to a slightly better quality, I know there is the Quick Render option and I use that a lot, there used to be a trick slider underneath it that newbies always failed to find, Im looking but not finding a slider to up the quality just a bit.

Most of the rest makes sense, its about testing and playing and making notes and learning as Im going, but the points above are really holding me up 

Hoping someone can help sort my issues 

[Mohawk20]

Sure, these are all mostly issues of getting the know a new interface.

Remember, this is not the final version, so some of the nice features you are used to are not implemented yet, and some may never return.
About the terrain and the heightfield... TG2 works with a different approach to terrain. Terrain is the basic designation of wat we call earth in the real world. The old version used heightfield to fake a planet, but now we just have a whole planet to start with. A 'terrain' covers the whole planet, using a power fractal. A heightfield only covers a small bit of that, only the designated area.

The preview is different from what you know. It builds up to higher quality while you do nothing, until it reaches a final detail level, which is not full detail, but it works for most of us. The quick render is another way of rendering a preview, and there you cán set the detail to 1.

Layers and shaders are different in the way that we now use a node system, and every node that applies some kind of effect to a surface (like reflection, transparency, translucency, and other) is called a shader. A surfacelayer as a shader that applies a colour, or one or multiple shaders to the terrain (the whole terrain). So there are a lot of shaders, tht can be applied to a surfacelayer.


I'm running ot of time here, so I hope someone else can explain the navigation and positioning, if not (no one around), I'll be bck in a few hours. I hope I was of some help..

[Mohawk20]

No one? Ohw well, y'all must still be sleepin' on the other side of the globe...

Right, where were we?
The terrain is fixed, and the camera moves. Only some extra previews and overviews are missing, so you lack some clear relations between camera and terrain and sun.

One thing you could do is, in default begin positions tilt the camera up a bit so you see more sky, and change the suns heading until it becomes visible in the 3D preview. From there you  can begin turning it back until the shadows are right (best would be to have some mountains or hills first so you can actually see the shadows). It's still a bit of trial and error though. But if you have found out what degree the suns is at when it's in front of you, then you can take off the right amount of degrees to get it behind and to the left or right. In the default starting position, the sun will be right in front of you at about 30 degrees, so 'slightly behind the camera and to the left' would be at the default 300 degrees.

I hope there will come a dialog for that again in the future though, when all rendering speed issuse are dealt with.

You could also use the preview for camera placement. Click the 'set camera' under the preview window, and then zoom out. The camera should now be visible. id you click on the back of the camera, there should apear 3 arrows, a green one pointing up, and a red an blue one pointing to the right and front. You can use those arrows to move the camera. Then click 'set camera' again, and then click 'view camera' to see where it is and change the target.

The problems you encounter require a lot of getting used to, but eventually you will be able to get the view you want pretty quickly.
I hope I've been able to help you, if not, feel free to ask more and more.

[rcallicotte]

I suggest you find Oshyan's tutorial for beginners.  It goes through all the basics step by step and is well written.

[Oshyan]

I hope the majority of your questions have now been answered, both by folks here, and by the in-progress documentation. The sun positioning controls (as well as other areas of the UI) should be improved in the future, but for now we're focusing on some deeper core improvements in rendering. I certainly agree that sun placement could be easier. You may also find that camera controls are easier in the latest Technology Preview (release 3) which has just been made available to registered users.

Let us know if you have additional questions.

- Oshyan

[BlueRose]

Oshyan, thankyou for your comment, I am glad I am not the only one a bit confused about the sun heading thing (the old way did it so clearly and simply, I miss it

The other thing that made me scratch my head a bit (once someone pointed me in the right direction) is that the default heading for the camera puts the sun at 25 deg off to the right of it (as you are looking at it)

It strikes me as a sensible place to start at 0 as straigh ahead of you?  Also some way of seeing the camera degree heading could also be useful.

All things I am sure the team have thought of already!  I have downloaded the eagerly awaited alpha preview (and now Im back from lace making class) will have a quick look.