New Terragen user - is Mojoworld still a worthy tool?

[auricle]

Hi,

I've bought the Terragen 2/Xfrog Mega bundle (hi everyone!) and I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into this program. I'm a totally new at 3D landscape generation - although I did own Bryce many years ago so I know some of the concepts. Using functions to generate landscape, colours, etc I don't know at all. I'm looking at creating some still pictures and animations to put to some music (I'm an amateur musician mostly). I'm very much looking forward to creating some realistic and fantasy landscape art with TG.

Anyway, onto my point! A few weeks ago, I looked closely at Mojoworld on Pandromeda's website. It looked very powerful with some very interesting features. I didn't notice that the last time the website was updated was 2006. On closer inspection I also noticed that their SSL certificate (for encrypted https connections) had expired. I sent an email to Pandromeda support confirming my interest and left it at that.

Two weeks later Ken Musgrave himself emailed me that the website isn't working (webmaster had left) and could I pay via PayPal or cashier's check. I voiced my concern that Mojoworld hadn't been updated for a while and he said that there are big plans for it but he couldn't tell me what they were.

Further emails were exchanged basically saying I can't pay via paypal (they blocked my account due to someone hacked it to use it illegally) and I didn't want to post a check from the UK. I said could I send a bank transfer to his business account. He replied that he's having problems with his merchant account and could I send it to his personal account instead.

Normally, alarm bells would be ringing and I would just walk away as this doesn't seem on the level to me but this is Ken Musgrave himself - surely he can be trusted?

Anyway, apart from the interchange above - is Mojoworld still worth having? Can it do things that Terragen 2 can't from an amateur's point of view? I don't really believe that he will update it for 64bit, multithreaded, etc although I could be wrong.

What do you guys think?

This may seem a totally off-topic post for Terragen 2. My apologies for that - I just need some opinions on this affair and I'm not sure where to ask.

Thanks

[RogerB]

I had Mojoworld 3. I liked it very much, but it was too slow.
On the Renderosity forum I saw Doc Mojo announcing he was back (jan 2010) but would not comment on any Mojoworld development.
It is not unlikely they are working on something.
I still like the program and the interface is in my opinion among the best, but as mentioned rendered too slow and besides I think it looks too artificial by todays standards.
I would not even consider buying any program that is 5 years old. It was very good back then, but my opinion is today Terragen2 is better.
I do not remember anything I could do in Mojoworld I can not do in Terragen2.
If you have the time and money and want to find out yourself go ahead (I think he can be trusted).

[timj]

Ken can definitely be trusted. I had some dealings with him a while ago over the MojoWorld SDK. However, the future of MojoWorld is definitely unclear.

[jaf]

You might want to be patient and continue researching.  I'm pretty sure you will get more response to this thread.

Also, you might want to checkout World Machine 2:  http://www.world-machine.com/    It plays nicely with TG2 and many here use it.  It is node base like TG2 so you might find the concept similar enough make learning both a little easier.

[Oshyan]

I really don't know the status of MojoWorld beyond what has been said publicly thus far, which is very little. But if you're interested in Mojo, or at least appreciate its aesthetic, and being a musician to boot, you might want to check out Artmatic Voyager: http://www.uisoftware.com/Voyager/
Created by Eric Wenger, the co-creator of Bryce (with Ken, coincidentally). Eric's company U&I Software also creates music software, which is why it seems like a possibly good fit for your interests.

- Oshyan

[auricle]

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies! Sorry it's taken me so long to reply - I'm not normally ignorant to ignore people kind enough to reply to my question but I've been away and have only just returned.

Okay, I've decided to go for Mojoworld. I like the 'old skool' feel of the earlier landscape generators such as Bryce and Artmatic Voyager but I'm hoping that it will be updated. Ken said it would be. By the way, I know UI Software very well. I own Metasynth - it's a fantastic and incredibly powerful sound manipulator. Artmatic Pro/Voyager seems a great choice but you cannot import objects into a scene. You can do far out/whacky things with Artmatic Pro which can then be used by Voyager but nothing like importing an .obj Anyway, the price of the combination isn't expensive at all - I might look at it for an alternative.

It looks like I've bitten quite a big chunk, what with Terragen 2, Mojoworld and probably Artmatic Pro/Voyager but each piece of software seems good at a certain type of image. I'm going to enjoy taking my time, exploring and getting to know their nooks and crannies.

[efflux]

Mojoworld is still a great app. It's sad that development has stopped. I've been working in it lately. There are several things in Mojoworld that are absolutely unsurpassed in any other app and they are not going to be any time soon which makes it very frustrating that Mojo development has stopped because it needs some more features. Here's a render from a planet I just did. This may in fact be the last landscape CG work I ever do. This angle of computer art is simply too time consuming. This is the main reason I've not posted any TG2 work for ages.