hope its gonna be helpfull and please keep this thread alive so people can learn. Send your links or your own tutorials so i can add em also ;D
Dont forget, i didnt create any of these tutorials. Credit original creators.
Cheers and happy rendering (and fast render times..)
Basics
Basics of terragen, all around tutorials, advices on render settings.
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=63 Surfacing,Objects,Populations
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=4.0 Node references
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=12.0 All around official documentation
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=92.0 Settings of Tgen2, how does relatively small changes affect render time
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3386&PHPSESSID=610005f6224010840e4f0f29d6dcbc6a Settings of Tgen2, advices, very usefull
Shaders, Fractal terrains
Surfaces, displacements, fractals!
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3439 How to make deep snow
http://www.designpaths.com/terragen-tutorials/modifying-the-terrain-using-the-redirect-shader/ Using the redirect shader
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/fake_stones.html Using fake stones (when will melting ice stop making so good tutorials? no time to add them all :D)
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/terrain_mod.html Terrain basics
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=15 Twist and shear shader
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=44.0 Fake stones displacements
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=231.0 Realistic rocks structures
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=187.0 Great thread about crater shader
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3457[/color] First cave produced within TG2
Atmosphere
All those clouds and haze.
http://sotecware.bttec.org/tg2wiki/index.php?title=Tutorial_Wolkenwand How to make storm like clouds
http://www.motionmagnetic.com/terragen2/ Explaining atmosphere/clouds settings with screenshots, very useful.
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=34.0 Luc Biancos thread how to make his sexy fat clouds.
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3432 How to make fog using low density clouds
TG2 communities:
Need help? Ask there.
http://chat.deviantart.com/chat/Terragen Deviantart chat, very nice people here.
http://designpaths.com/forums New community ran by MeltingIce
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=topics&s=37&PHPSESSID=610005f6224010840e4f0f29d6dcbc6a Classic ashundar forums
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php#2 New official planet side forums.
Objects
How to use objects and populations
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/object_pop.html Objects and populations
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=1.0 Snow on trees, keep eye on this thread
Various
Misc tutorials that dont fit anywhere
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/adding_planets.html How to add planet
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=41.0 Dual core full use workaround
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=101.0 Adding multiple light sources
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=89.0 Making an asteroid within TG2, very usefull for celestial artists.
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=444.0 Starfield in TG2
Resources
Objects, tgd files and anything else
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/tg2/tech_preview.shtml Xfrog free vegetation
Thanks for adding my tutorials to the list. I'm writing another now on migrating from Terragen 0.9 to Terragen 2.0 since some people seem to have some problems getting used to the new program.
cool tell me when u finish =)
Thanks. The more we know, the more we can share, the more we can know.
After playing around for a little bit, I think im going to start at the top of these and start going through the list :D I am enjoying just fiddling around and such, but after trying to figure out what a few settings actually do, and not seeing the difference, I think its time for structure here :)
thanks for putting these all in one place, I know myself and lots of others are thankful :D
=)
Thank you!!!
Its so nice to have them all listed together, and to have a name for each tut.
I am a noob too, so this will give me an organized way to start and work my way up.
I will need to get ready for the upcoming class, and this will help me greatly.
Jane
Someone should make this thread a Sticky this way at later dates we dont need to go finding it through many pages of thread :)
Quote from: Tsukiyono on December 23, 2006, 03:01:17 PM
Someone should make this thread a Sticky this way at later dates we dont need to go finding it through many pages of thread :)
Someone like me? :D Done!
- Oshyan
thanks Oshyan :D... was starting to get annoyed myself by having to hunt it down everytime I came back to look through here :D
thx for sticking =) and get me more tutorials guyz ;)
Quote from: Tsukiyono on December 23, 2006, 03:01:17 PM
Someone should make this thread a Sticky this way at later dates we dont need to go finding it through many pages of thread :)
This is a great idea, but I think it's going to be most useful if we're careful to make sure that actual tutorials are listed, as opposed to simple discussions.
R
I have to agree with Ron here. Just check out that "fake stones" discussion if you really want to get confused between fake stones and rock populations.
Woot! My page got included in the sticky :) I'm back from my Christmas holiday and will be adding lot's more to the Atmosphere Examples page very soon!
lots of reading there :P all good stuff too, thanks for sharing everyone :)
Hmm... would you guys like to centralize all of these tutorials onto a single site instead of having them all over the place? If so, I can contact the authors of these tutorials and get it setup.
I sometimes like the discussions better. As they do manage to tell you things about them, but they DONT show you step by step how to do them. I have always disliked tutorials for that reason, even though it does make it harder for me to learn without knowing step by step, but when I do figure it out, even with the help of the discussions, I feel like I have actually achieved something worth celebrating :)
This is what got me off the ground,
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=18
When I start something entirely new to me, the best way for me to learn is a step-by-step tutorial.
And this one really is wonderful.
I am hoping that someone here will do a few more of them too, then as I go back to the other tuts, if I get stuck, I can go back to the step-by-step. Or ask and watch the discussions for details too.
Anyway, all the tuts are great! And soooooo important for us beginners.
Thank you all,
Jane
(Being a visual learner, I have also benefited greatly by watching the training CDs with the QuickTime movies like they have for Bryce, Photoshop, and many others.)
I have 2 new tutorials you might want to add to the list:
Migrating from TG 0.9 to TG 2: http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/migration.html
and using the Fake Stones Shader: http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/fake_stones.html
;)
thx guyz, ill need some help for futher updating this thread... school is starting :(
Quote from: Jane on December 31, 2006, 08:37:19 AM
(Being a visual learner, I have also benefited greatly by watching the training CDs with the QuickTime movies like they have for Bryce, Photoshop, and many others.)
I second this request! A video tutorial is an absolute must!
Is there anyone here who would like to make some video tutorials for us?
There is nothing on www.lynda.com or the VTC sites yet, so there is an opportunity for one of you experts, as you can see on their sites that they are looking for people to submit tuts.
Or just here.
That would be a godsend for us beginners.
Tony Farley made some for version 9 which were excellent!
Jane
I think it's a great idea, and I'd expect many would like to do them once the full release of TG2 takes place. Since this is a transitional product, any tutorials written now may not apply to the final version.
Knotian
Hmm I'll see if I can do a video tutorial sometime. Any ideas about what topic you want it to be on?
I think that a very basic movie sort of modeled after this one,
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=18
would be wonderful for a start..
This one is what got me started correctly, I followed it thru to the end several times, thus getting the process into my old brain.
Then from there, I could expand on each part in a new picture. Practising every day, always starting with the basics, then going on to the more difficult steps, is what I am doing now.
I just looked at the Maya video series at lynda.com, because I had no idea about Maya, and after watching several of them, it really came alive! It is amazing what a video can do for a beginner.
Thank you!
Jane
Quote from: MeltingIce on January 05, 2007, 10:46:01 AM
Hmm I'll see if I can do a video tutorial sometime. Any ideas about what topic you want it to be on?
I would love to see videos on basic use of the node system and why you need to connect things a certain way to get specific results (this still mystifies me). A video using the "Strata and outcrop" shader would be great along with some of the more popular/powerful shaders.
Just some ideas.
And also use of the camera, I dont seem to be able to do that like I could with the old version.
Thanks again,
Jane
Melting i think it would be best if u made some render and recorded it on video w/e your comments
Hmm alright everyone I guess a video tutorial it is. I'll see what I can come up with once exams are over on Tuesday :P
EDIT: to prevent double post I'll just edit this one, hows a video tutorial on using the redirect shader to create canyons sound?
Quote from: MeltingIce on January 07, 2007, 05:02:54 AM
hows a video tutorial on using the redirect shader to create canyons sound?
Sounds great! Can't wait to see it.
Would be good to add this thread on star fields:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=444.0
Andrew Randle
The Geostation
Just finished my tutorial on how to use the Redirect Shader. I know I promised a video tutorial but unfortunately I was unable to find enough quiet time to sit down and go through the whole thing at one go. Instead, I just wrote it up like my other tutorials. You can read it here: http://www.designpaths.com/terragen-tutorials/modifying-the-terrain-using-the-redirect-shader/
I will be providing more specific examples in the tutorial soon, I just thought I would get the basics out so that people can play with that while I write up how to do more specific things.
Just an interesting thing I am noting here: the combination of the release of T2TP and the opening of these forums has completely changed the online landscape for Terragen users.
Anyway, I thought I'd also say that the tutorials by MeltingIce are top quality and very easy to follow. I find them very useful and I would strongly recommend reading them to anybody who uses Terragen.
Had to have a go, and throw in functions :-)
Welcome to eggbox mountain...
I love his tuts!
But I dont know what "T2TP" is, I thought this was TG2.
But being a beginner, I might have missed something important? Is it an update perhaps?
Please let me know about this T2TP, and I will pass it on to my classmates.
Thanks,
Jane
Terragen 2 Technology Preview
So the version of TG2 we have in our hands.
Oh, heavens, whew,,,,,,,Thank you!
I thought I was missing something, I like TG2.
Jane
Haha David those mountains are intense. Thanks everyone for the good feedback, its good to know these tutorials are helping! I'll keep working on the redirect shader tutorial and get those specific examples up soon. :D
Quote from: Jane on January 14, 2007, 05:55:55 PM
But I dont know what "T2TP" is, I thought this was TG2.
As we are not using the properly finished version TG2 yet, it technically should not be called TG2. That could be misleading and cause people who are new to Terragen to think that T2TP is actually a finished product.
hey guyz ill add your tutorials soon as i said i dont have holidays anymore so i cant be checkin threads all the time
Thanks for the new tutorial. What I found the most helpful was the phrase...
"...one that stands out as being very useful is the Redirect Shader. Basically what it does it is allows us to displace the terrain in a certain direction (x, y and/or z) based on another shader."
Its from these simple definitions like this that lay the foundation (for newbies like me) to unlock the power of this program.
Thanks for your fine work.
-Windjammer
I have made a site out of this thread. So far I have only added the links that were in the first post, but I will continue to add links as I find them around the forums and elsewhere. Please check out the forum post for the site here: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=562.0
Now I'm not one to judge but how come center is spelled wrong?
Regards,
Will
Depends on whether you are talking about the US or UK spelling
Quote from: FrankThomas on January 22, 2007, 04:18:08 PM
Depends on whether you are talking about the US or UK spelling
Yes, and we are using planetside
.co.uk, so
centre is the correct spelling. Corret me f I am wrong, but I believe that most countries use centre (for example, it is spelt the same way in French).
hmmm must be like how the brits use happy X-mas while americans use merry x-mas
Regards,
Will
Quote from: Dark Fire on January 22, 2007, 04:37:46 PM
Yes, and we are using planetside.co.uk, so centre is the correct spelling. Corret me f I am wrong, but I believe that most countries use centre (for example, it is spelt the same way in French).
Not to mention that it comes from the greek word "kentro" - not "kentor" :D
nick
well its not wrong spelling at all its just one of few differences between USA and UK english. (i.e. elevator X lift)
We learn UK english in my country so thats why.
Even tho, whoops, what kind of spelling is tho?
Even though I live in USA, Ive lived in a British colony, so I learned both. So all words are correct as far as I am concerned. Just like learning the metric system then having to return to our system, I prefer the metric. Learn both.
Linguistics is a lot of fun to study too, one of my relatives was involved in that, tis fascinating.
Anyway, thank you for the new tuts! And I would LOVE to see some more videos too.
This TG2 is more fun than I could imagine, I love it. ;)
Jane
Ah yes the metric system if only we americans awould use it. Also its what Terragen uses for all those who missed the thread about it.
Regards,
Will
oh well i somehow stopped enjoying terragen.... i dont know its maybe all the huge render times and crashes. Im waiting on final release.
Suggestion from a beginner, which I am, but so excited about learning this amazing program,,,,,,,,
1. I don't use the high quality for renders, thus cutting way back on time. I consider this practise for when we get the final program. But the learning process is just wonderful for me, I sure enjoy it.
2. And for crashes, I learned quickly not to be running all sorts of other programs at the same time as when you are rendering.
Google Earth and Photoshop were my problems, I was impatient.
Just yesterday I had to Force Quit Terragen, my own fault(using Photoshop, Safari, Firefox and others).
3. Use another computer(Ive an older Mac here beside the big Mac), for email, surfing, music and all your other stuff, while the newer one is tied up with TG.
Hope this helps, Ive not much experience with these complex programs, but do find that this does help me anyway. And my classmates too.
Jane :)
(Good heavens, I almost knocked my computer over, jumped up to see a huge coyote in our yard chasing squirrels and I realized my neighbour's cat was out, chased him away. cat is OK, whew!)
Quote from: Jane on January 24, 2007, 01:21:45 PM
3. Use another computer(Ive an older Mac here beside the big Mac), for email, surfing, music and all your other stuff, while the newer one is tied up with TG.
The other alternative is to get a dual core processor. Since right now TGTP only uses one core, the other core is left for doing whatever you want. I have experienced crashes however while using Photoshop at the same time as Terragen is rendering, but I'm not sure if they are related. If anything it might be a memory issue that caused it to crash because it gave the "instruction could not be read at 0xsomething" error. Photoshop takes up a ton of RAM too when you're working with it.
Quote from: Jane on January 24, 2007, 01:21:45 PM
1. I don't use the high quality for renders, thus cutting way back on time. I consider this practise for when we get the final program. But the learning process is just wonderful for me, I sure enjoy it.
Yes - I think T2TP takes so long to render at the moment, and so it is more useful as something that helps us get to grips with how to use TG2.
Yes indeed, and when you use Photoshop and Google Earth while rendering, you are asking for trouble.
Jane ;D
you think thats bad? I play Rainbow Six: Vegas with TGTP in the backround, thats asking for trouble.
Also would anyone like a tutorial on how to use image maps to create planets with depth and (sorta) reflective oceans?
Regards,
Will
Hi Will, Yes indeed on the image maps for the planets! I am not quite there yet, but some of my classmates are.
I dont know Rainbow or vegas yet, but Google Earth I do know. I use Macs.
Yes on the tutorials! My classmates will help me go forth with planets!.
Thank you,
Jane
Neat Ill get on it and have it up ASAP.
Regards,
Will
Hey Will, thought I'd point you to this link:
http://www.richardrosenman.com/media/software/files/spheremap.zip (http://www.richardrosenman.com/media/software/files/spheremap.zip)
It's a PS plug-in that will stretch your global image at the poles correctly for texturing a sphere.
Just thought it might help in the tutorial :P
Quote from: Will on January 26, 2007, 08:26:42 PM
you think thats bad? I play Rainbow Six: Vegas with TGTP in the backround, thats asking for trouble.
Also would anyone like a tutorial on how to use image maps to create planets with depth and (sorta) reflective oceans?
Regards,
Will
I was trying to get that reflective ocean effect for a while now without any success :-\
the tutorial would be good...
Quote from: §ardine on January 27, 2007, 01:16:10 PM
Hey Will, thought I'd point you to this link:
http://www.richardrosenman.com/media/software/files/spheremap.zip (http://www.richardrosenman.com/media/software/files/spheremap.zip)
It's a PS plug-in that will stretch your global image at the poles correctly for texturing a sphere.
Just thought it might help in the tutorial :P
Neat find, Thanks :)
Regards,
Will
distort>double spherize>shrink
Is this a Photoshop plug in? I am having trouble installing it in my Photoshop PlugIns folder, it wont show up?
Perhaps not for Mac?
Jane
Quote from: buchvecny on January 27, 2007, 09:00:21 PM
distort>double spherize>shrink
It's been a while since I've used PS (been using The GIMP recently) but i think this is opposite than what the plug-in will do. basically what needs to happen is not to create an image of a globe but to have a map that can be projected onto a sphere without pinching occurring at the poles. If you take a look at some of the maps on this site (http://planetpixelemporium.com/planets.html) it might be a little clearer than my attempts to explain myself here. :P
ah i see. i dont know then
it installed fine on my CS2 xp not mac... and tested it works
Great work, a real help to all!!
Hope there is a section somewhere about camera animation, im having alot of difficulty finding any.
O
Jane, Rosenmann only makes plug-ins for Windows... So you'll need to run Windows via Parallels on your Mac (I do this for Windows-only goodies).
Mike
My husband just got a MacTel, but refuses to run any Windows stuff at all on it.
So I guess I will just wait, perhaps get one for myself next year.
We just got a Yellow Lab puppy, so I obviously havent had much computer time, and probably wont for the next year or so,
and hopefully by then, the Parallells and other software will be perfected and I will get a new Mac then.
Thanks,
Jane
Might be a good time to revisit this, about half the tut links are broke. Anything with meltingice or designpath in it . . .
I will be looking at this in September as some of my Photoshop classmates are really interested. But summer is difficult.
So lets keep in touch, as this is the most fun software!
Jane
Quote from: Jeremy Ray on April 14, 2008, 06:30:50 PM
Might be a good time to revisit this, about half the tut links are broke. Anything with meltingice or designpath in it . . .
truth baby, now that planetside finally released multicore support for public i am returning to tgen myself so you can expect update soon
Quotehttp://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/object_pop.html Objects and populations
- Links doesn't seem to work:)
Quotehttp://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/object_pop.html
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3386&PHPSESSID=610005f6224010840e4f0f29d6dcbc6a
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3439
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/fake_stones.html
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/terrain_mod.html
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3457
http://sotecware.bttec.org/tg2wiki/index.php?title=Tutorial_Wolkenwand
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=34.0
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3432
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/object_pop.html
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/adding_planets.html
All of these links dont seem to be working :(
somethings wrong with ashundar's site and meltingice.
Please updated :-\
I could get a couple of the URLs to work,
http://www.ashundar.com/
Click on the individual posts, and you should be able to get to the newest posts.
http://gallery.meltingice.net/main.php
The others I couldnt get to work either.
But this is a start.
Jane
Ashundar is fine, but it's now Terragen.org (Ashundar.com redirects) so that's probably causing the errors. The content is still there.
- Oshyan
Quote from: motogp on June 10, 2009, 01:18:58 AM
Quotehttp://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/object_pop.html
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3386&PHPSESSID=610005f6224010840e4f0f29d6dcbc6a
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3439
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/fake_stones.html
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/terrain_mod.html
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3457
http://sotecware.bttec.org/tg2wiki/index.php?title=Tutorial_Wolkenwand
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=34.0
http://www.ashundar.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=3432
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/object_pop.html
http://paths.meltingice.net/tg2/adding_planets.html
All of these links dont seem to be working :(
somethings wrong with ashundar's site and meltingice.
Please updated :-\
Don't mean to complain with my first post, but I would love to see the MeltingIce tuts. Does anyone know the guy, or have a way to get in contact with him so he can put these tuts back up. From what I have read here they are unmissable :(
I'm a noob myself to TG2 and I have to impress my boss with a scene involing a lot (alien mountains, two moons/planets in the sky, and a huge forest) with a photorealistic rendering...
Arrgh, help!!
Hi everyone!
Many links in the original post are not working.
Anyway we can get them linked correctly or re-post them for us new guys? ;D
Must....learn....more....
Top unstickied as much of the original information is no longer available through these links. I suggest use of the Wiki instead: http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/
You can login there with your regular forum login information.
- Oshyan