Planetside Software Forums

General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: WAS on May 28, 2020, 06:48:58 PM

Title: Many Lights
Post by: WAS on May 28, 2020, 06:48:58 PM
What would be the best settings to be able to handle many light sources in Terragen? I'm trying to get a particle like glowball effect like in other particle systems but TG seems to cripple with just 200 light sources and blackness with a v2 haze. :\ 30 minutes in I have yet to complete a bucket at mpd 0.5 aa 3.

If I want a glow in the atmosphere, is "Glow in Atmophere" needed or with a v2 is light atmosphere enough? Also clearly no soft shadows? Any other settings elsewhere I could try?

I made a lightsource generator but it seems to be useless cause TG can't really handle many light sources.
Title: Re: Many Lights
Post by: KyL on May 28, 2020, 09:12:19 PM
Yeah it is pretty hard to handle many lights. I am fighting the same problem as well in a scene.

What I found helps the most is really dialing your max distance as low as possible. Also turn off the secondary on your cloud layer as you probably only want the effect of the lights.
Title: Re: Many Lights
Post by: WAS on May 28, 2020, 09:29:39 PM
Disabling secondary immediately made a huge impact on just the preview alone. Reducing max distance makes sense, cause even if there is little intensity "visible" there is probably calculation always down 0.00001~. Should have thought about that.

Going to test. Thanks a bunch. You can check out the populator at https://nwdastore.com/terragen-tools/lightpop/
Title: Re: Many Lights
Post by: WAS on May 28, 2020, 10:49:02 PM
Yep. Max distance is literally the key. Once that was adjusted there was no issue previewing beyond what is expected.
Title: Re: Many Lights
Post by: N-drju on May 29, 2020, 03:24:27 AM
200 light sources? :o A stellar neighbourhood project? :D

As far as "glow in atmosphere" is concerned I notice significant difference with this option enabled. Lights seem to be stronger and "flood" the atmosphere better. But this is the case with V3 clouds, so I'm not sure how this works with the V2 version.
Title: Re: Many Lights
Post by: WAS on May 29, 2020, 01:23:02 PM
Quote from: N-drju on May 29, 2020, 03:24:27 AM200 light sources? (https://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/Smileys/fugue/shocked.png) A stellar neighbourhood project?

Yes actually. I was tired of manually placing light sources for nebulas, and wanted to try the "Denis Method" again. :P