Newbie question - difference between 1024*768 and larger image + downscaling

Started by Zakharov, September 05, 2008, 04:08:58 AM

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Zakharov

Hi everybody,
I'm new to Terragen but I love it. Unfortunately, my attempts so far suffer from rather "wishy-washy" resolution. Can you enhance the resolution by a better management of the surface controls or is this due to the maximum of 1024*768 pixel the unregistered version allows?
Perhaps someone can give me an example of a pic rendered with 1024*768 and the same pic rendered with a higher resolution an downscaling? I would love to see what difference this procedure makes.

buzzzzz1

Hi,

I worked with TG9 for a little while but unfortunately I don't have any examples of the differences. Perhaps Planetside will jump in and give you some examples if they want to sell you a license.
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dandelO

The main benefit of rendering larger and downsizing is detail.

A large image of a scene needs to draw more pixels over the area rendered. More pixels drawn = more detail.
When you downsize(and complementeraly(is it a word?) sharpen it to keep out the blur), you are shrinking all the extra pixels at the same time.

Think like this, in a 400x300px. render of a scene, a crack in the terrain(for a crude example) might be adequately drawn 1px wide, double the render dimensions to 800x600 and 4 times the amount of pixels need to be drawn for that same area(because four 400x300px's will fill an 800x600px render). Now, instead of a 1px wide line being drawn as the crack, a 4px wide area is needed. This will obviously contain more detail as the crack's smaller details will be drawn(details that are smaller than the 1px needed for the smaller render), a 1px line is just not adequate for a crack when rendered larger.

I know this is rough but it's the general idea. Hope that helps.

Oshyan

It sounds like you just might be running into a very common problem with first-time users of Terragen 0.9, and that is that the detail slider under the Preview Window also affects the main render. If you are getting blocky renders, try moving the detail slider all the way to the right and rendering again. If that doesn't do it, perhaps you can post an example of the images you are getting so we can see what the problem might be.

- Oshyan

Zakharov

Hi and thanks for your replies.
I knew of the detail slider, so this should not be the problem. I have attached one of my pictures, it is part of a larger image which was too big for upload. Does it do any good to sharpen the images with photoshop? Unfortunately my knowledge of paint programs is rather limited  :-\

General comments on the picture are also welcome :). I know the green is somewhat awkward, I tried to do some vegetation.  :(


Oshyan

Zakharov, your image looks fine to me. I think a key point to consider is the difference between "detail" and "resolution".

Detail is a potentially subjective term, but it generally refers to the ability to distinguish finer characteristics, small elements of the scene. Whereas resolution, as in 1024x768, is an absolute term which refers to the dimensions of an image in pixels. So you can have a *detailed* image that is not very high resolution, perhaps only 800x600 for example. Thus the resolution limit of 1024x768 is not necessarily the problem for you.

However, I suspect one of the other limitations of the free version of Terragen 0.9 may be responsible. In the registered version you have access to higher levels of antialiasing, which increases apparent detail in various ways. The Extra Blended Detail option of the registered version in particular can give you a sense of higher detail. It is roughly equivalent to a process that others use to increase detail, which is to render at a larger size than the final size of the image (for example render at 1600x1200) and then downsample to the target size (for example 800x600). This process forces Terragen to render more detail for the larger image, which is then more efficiently "packed" into the smaller space (that's a simplified explanation, but I think it makes it clearer).

In any case if you feel detail is lacking in your images, it may be necessary to upgrade to the registered version. But it is certainly possible to create very nice images with the free version as well. In the case of this particular image you might try reducing haze for example as it can make your scene appear softer than you would like.

- Oshyan

Zakharov

Hi Oshyan,
your answer helped me a lot.
So does it still do any good to render at the maximum 1280*960 and then downscale to lets say 800*600 or is this scaling factor too small to see a difference?
I will also definitely try to improve things by changing the haze.
Perhaps someone could post an image produced with the unregistered Terragen 0.9 and no post-processing. Just to see what the experts can do with it  ;)
Once my skills have improved and the program becomes the limiting factor I will definitely think about registering

Oshyan

Going from 1280x960 to 800x600 obviously will not have as big an effect, but it should still be noticeable if you look closely.

- Oshyan

PG

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