Recent posts

#91
Image Sharing / Re: Galilean Moon Io
Last post by Dune - May 13, 2025, 01:41:39 AM
Good of you to post something here. It's extremely quiet indeed. I think a lot of folkes have gone to Blender or Unreal and such.
Nice scene. Smoke columns are hard indeed, but yours looks good.
#92
Image Sharing / Galilean Moon Io
Last post by RichTwo - May 12, 2025, 12:15:04 PM
Wow... It's been pretty quiet in this section for a while. And while I haven't been inspired enough lately to contribute anything, I consider this as an achievement, minor that it may be.

First of all, many thanks to staff member Kevin Kipper who solved my problem of image mapping onto a planet object. And to Jordan T for his starfield background.
The vapor "column" is three localized cloud / stretched PF density nodes. Its upper limit doesn't extend much further than the top of the image,,, I tried tweaking a "smoke column" clip (Jordan's I believe) but to no avail. If anyone has a better solution, please have at it.

Io, for those who don't know is the innermost large moon of Jupiter. Its surface is free of cratering due to constant resurfacing of its crust. The plumes are probably not due to material shooting directly out from underground, rather it the being much hotter molten sulfurous rock flowing out from vents, contacting the frozen surface which then vaporizes and explodes upwards.

That's the science lesson for today. Test in 15 minutes...  ;D
#93
Announcements / Partial data loss May 2025 (7t...
Last post by Matt - May 11, 2025, 08:24:37 PM
We encountered a partial loss of data from late on Wednesday 7th of May to early Saturday 10th of May, 2025, when we were forced to restore some of our databases from a backup. The data loss affected the forum and the store, including a small number of license purchases and renewals.

Please be assured that we have records of all purchases and subscription renewal payments that were made during that time, and we will make sure that all databases are made whole this week. If you encounter any issues with your licenses, please contact us and we'll get them fixed as soon as possible.

If you created a forum account or made a post during that time, it might have been wiped out.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused.

Matt


#94
Terragen Discussion / Re: The effect of clouds?
Last post by Matt - May 10, 2025, 06:26:33 PM
You can export scenes from Terragen Sky to Terragen 4, and that should give you more controls, but we're going add these settings to Terragen Sky in an update soon.
#95
Image Sharing / City and Landscape Mediterran ...
Last post by Uwe Kronemann - May 07, 2025, 12:40:56 PM
City and Landscape Mediterran (MP4 2025)
Animations and pictures from Terragen4, Poser13 and FlowScape1.5.
(Production with "MovieMaker", Hosting by "DailyMotion")
LINK to DailyMotion:
https://dai.ly/k2yjVuBGEDc5F7D07RW
#96
Terragen Discussion / Re: Custom GPT for Terragen
Last post by Dune - May 07, 2025, 02:02:36 AM
Well, I just asked how to make a tunnel in Terragen :D
To create a tunnel in Terragen terrain, you will need to utilize several nodes that allow you to manipulate the terrain effectively. The process involves generating a heightmap, creating a tunnel shape, and then subtracting this shape from the existing terrain. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to achieve this:
Step 1: Prepare Your Terrain
Start by generating your base terrain using nodes such as Fractal Terrain or importing a heightmap using the File Input node. This will serve as the foundation for your tunnel.
Step 2: Create the Tunnel Shape
To create the tunnel, you can use a combination of nodes:
  • Shape Node: This node can be used to define the geometry of your tunnel. You might want to set it up with a rectangular cross-section (e.g., 5m x 4m) to represent the dimensions of your tunnel.
  • Transform Node: Use this node to position and orient your tunnel shape correctly within the terrain.
Step 3: Subtract the Tunnel from the Terrain
Once you have defined your tunnel shape, you will need to subtract it from your terrain:
  • Boolean Operations Node: This node allows you to perform operations like subtraction. Connect your terrain output to one input of this node and your tunnel shape output to another input. Set it up to subtract the tunnel from the terrain.
Step 4: Final Adjustments
After performing the subtraction, you may need additional adjustments:
  • Erosion Node: To refine the appearance of both your terrain and where the tunnel intersects with it, apply erosion effects.
  • Texture Nodes: Use shader nodes (like Surface Layer) to texture both the exposed parts of your terrain and any visible parts of your tunnel.
Example Node Setup
  • File Input (for heightmap)
  • Fractal Terrain (if not using an imported heightmap)
  • Shape Node (to define tunnel geometry)
  • Transform Node (to position the tunnel)
  • Boolean Operations Node (to subtract the tunnel from terrain)
  • Erosion Node (for realistic surface details)
  • Shader Nodes (for texturing)
By following these steps and utilizing these nodes, you should be able to create a realistic-looking tunnel within Terragen's terrain environment.
The probability that this answer is correct is approximately 90%.
#97
Terragen Discussion / Re: The effect of clouds?
Last post by noahding1 - May 07, 2025, 12:12:08 AM
Thank you! I was generated in terragenSKY and have no way to increase "Millions of voxels".
#98
Terragen Discussion / Re: Custom GPT for Terragen
Last post by digitalguru - May 06, 2025, 12:14:25 PM
I've tried Chat GPT on a few things with various degrees of success... depend on what it can find in its database I guess.
It's good on Python, ok on Maya, not bad on Nuke, but hallucinates badly on Houdini. I'm learning Houdini and lost count of the amount of times I've asked how to do something, only to find the node suggested by the AI doesn't exist. Or it'll suggest a totally heath robinson workflow invloving writing a bunch of Python only to find the solution is as simple as clicking the right button.

But reading and decontructing an existing file is an interesting idea, maybe it would handle that better. Would love it if I had an issue with a Maya/Nuke/Houdini/Terragen file and it could point it out, but then that would take the fun out of it...

#99
Mainly just wanted to see if ChatGPT could understand Terragen nodes and their connections well enough to look at a tgd file and explain what all the parts do. Sometimes I encounter very complex tgd files, and want to break them down into pieces to understand what is going on. ChatGPT is good for having conversations, so even it if explains something to you that doesn't make sense, or is too complex you can keep chatting to it asking questions in different ways to teach yourself things.
#100
Terragen Discussion / Re: Custom GPT for Terragen
Last post by gao_jian11 - May 05, 2025, 10:08:44 PM
This is definitely feasible! I initially gave a try to combine Gemini 2.5 and Grok3 with terragen to work together. Both of these AI systems can directly generate Terragen's TGD files and CLIP files. I use them to control the movement direction of the camera and the sun, import external model files to adjust the model materials, and arrange them in arrays. In summary, since the scene files of terragen are essentially XML files, writing such code is a domain where AI is very proficient. AI can do many things for terragen and greatly enhance work efficiency. I can open a separate post to introduce my attempts.