I just discovered Terragen yesterday and have had some fun playing with it. Although I'm not new to 3D art, this program is great for making quick and realistic renders.
Anyway, here are the first images I was able to produce with Terragen 0.9
Altan Mountains
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/AltanMountains.jpg)
Misty Passage
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/NorthernAfternoon.jpg)
Deep Bay
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/NorthernView.jpg)
Qyzym Desert
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/qyzymdesert1.jpg)
Former Lakebed
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/driedlakebed.jpg)
Here are a couple more terrain scenes. I've been experimenting with desertic landscapes and came up with these.
Muck Lake
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/MuckLake.jpg)
Desert Night
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/QyzymatNight.jpg)
Desolation
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/QyzymDunes.jpg)
More Dunes
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/QyzymWind.jpg)
not bad for a start, keep up the good work and feel free to ask if you have any questions.
Pretty good to start. Keep learning and having fun.
Not bad, especially for first renders ;). Make sure that boat doesn't crash into anything in the misty passage :P.
I like the former lakebed one....really cool....
Your terrain is quite nice, but personally I don't like it when people copy+paste stuff into Terragen 0.9 images. It not only doesn't look realistic, it doesn't even look as good as the terrain would by itself. The level of realism just clashes way too much, it's like pasting images of Dumbo into Return of the King instead of the oliphaunts. If you want objects in your scene, please, use Terragen 2 so that you can get them with accurate orientation and lighting. The results will look much better.
EDIT: Actually, this makes me something of a hypocrite, because I myself have copied stuff into a Terragen image in the past. And worse yet, I plan to do it again. Do you think there's anything I can do to absolve myself of these sins? The time I did it, I was careful to match up the lighting as precisely as I could, and added shadows and everything to make the transition as smooth as possible. Is this good enough, or do you think I still need to wash myself in a holy water shader or something?
green_meklar - Once we have the final version, objects will be a lot more accessible within TG2.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm still having fun and learning. I'll have to give TG2 another chance. I didn't really like the interface but I have both TG0.9 and TG2 so I'll try it out again.
Green Meklar, if pasting clip outs onto images is so bad, then why do you plan on doing it again? ;D ;D
These look a lot better than my first ones...
I have given Terragen 2 another chance and failed miserably so tried importing two of my terrains into 3ds Max and after some tweaking, I've gotten these two results. They still don't look super real but it's what I could do for now.
Elysium Bays
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/IsleofElysium.jpg)
Lower Altan Mountains (Summer version)
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/AltanMountainsJune.jpg)
:)
Quotegreen_meklar - Once we have the final version, objects will be a lot more accessible within TG2.
Yes...but that's not entirely the issue.
QuoteI didn't really like the interface
The node system in itself isn't SO bad, but what I really miss about the Terragen 0.9 interface is how you could hover your mouse over just about everything and it will tell you what it means. In Terragen 2 it throws all these terms like 'voronoi noise' and 'unclamped multifractal' at you without the slightest bit of explanation.
Quoteif pasting clip outs onto images is so bad, then why do you plan on doing it again?
Because I'm a twisted, evil person.
No, it's because when I make things in Art of Illusion, the only formats it saves in are AOI (its native format) and OBJ, and the OBJ files only save the basics of what would be rendered in Art of Illusion. For example, in Art of Illusion I might use procedural color and bump mapping to give some detail to an otherwise flat and boring texture, but all that gets saved in the MTL file is the basic color and a few other things like transparency and specularity, so if I were to import it into Terragen 2 it would look a lot crappier. And I have good reasons for wanting it to be consistent with what Art of Illusion produces in certain cases (consistent implying not crappier). Also, I don't have the deep version of Terragen 2, so if I want more than three types of objects in a scene at once, there aren't really any easy ways to do it.
QuoteThey still don't look super real but it's what I could do for now.
The objects certainly come out better than in your other images. Like the shadow of the sailboat...in my experience, one of the most important things to make an object sitting on a surface look realistic is its shadow. And with stuff like all those trees, you can download the free Xfrog sample and use those trees in Terragen 2 to achieve more detailed results. People have already proved that Terragen 2 can achieve photorealism, it's just a question of how to go about it and whether your computer is up to the task (mine usually isn't).
QuoteAlso, I don't have the deep version of Terragen 2, so if I want more than three types of objects in a scene at once, there aren't really any easy ways to do it.
I think you might be able to add more objects if you render with POV Ray. At least it's free and has great rendering capabilities. This way you can get around the TG2 object limitations. You can check out POV Ray here: http://www.povray.org (http://www.povray.org).
Franky, I like that image from way up high. Good job.
Thanks Calico :)
I decided to give TG2 another chance and came up with this. These are XFrog's sweet birch trees, if you didn't already recognize them. However, it took like 45 minutes to render on medium settings so I'll probably just stick to 3ds max for my renders in the future.
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/birchfield.jpg)
Quote from: Franky on December 03, 2007, 01:34:50 AM
Thanks Calico :)
I decided to give TG2 another chance and came up with this. These are XFrog's sweet birch trees, if you didn't already recognize them. However, it took like 45 minutes to render on medium settings so I'll probably just stick to 3ds max for my renders in the future.
I think the high rendering time is due to the fog...and nice scene...
Franky, hopefully the final version of TG2 will be faster.
QuoteHowever, it took like 45 minutes to render on medium settings
45 minutes is nothing. I always run my final rendesr overnight, and they can take up to eight hours or so (if they're still running the morning I have to close them off so I can do other stuff, and then try again with lower settings the next night). And other people on these forums have put renders on for
weeks- on computers much faster than mine, too. You're not going to get anywhere with Terragen 2 if you let 45 minutes dissuade you. :P
Yeah - some people have had real horror stories (like, hundreds of hours) when it comes to rendering images - the results are often worth the wait, though :). For the record, though, most often those amazingly long render times are caused by unnecessarily high detail settings.
o_b is right. Very complex terrains can also run up render times. We once saw one go over 700 hours. ;D
I like your mountains best, actually the third one (with the water reflection), they look the most realistic, which I am a fan of (; keep up the good work..
Thanks for the feedback guys. :)
OMG 700 hours is long. Must have been a pretty cool scene though. O_B, it's true the results are worth the wait. I tried again with 3ds Max, but between us I think TG2 has better rendering quality even if it's somewhat slower. I guess you get what you wait for. So I'll keep max for making my objects and stick to TG2 for renders. I gave TG2 another try and this time came up with what was supposed to be a Martian scene (looks too orange, I think). This took 26 minutes to render (less fog and no trees).
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g227/frankyxrax147/Mars.jpg)
QuoteOMG 700 hours is long.
Yep. About 29 days. On the other hand, I once heard of someone rendering something in another program that took four months to complete, which comes out to almost 3000 hours.
Quoteand this time came up with what was supposed to be a Martian scene (looks too orange, I think).
Well, there's certainly no lack of real Mars images to compare it with. I'm sure the NASA website will give you dozens of them, so you can tweak to your heart's content. :)
I'm guessing that what that person was rendering was an animation ;). When I did my TG 0.9 animation, it took about 15 weeks to render.
QuoteI'm guessing that what that person was rendering was an animation ;).
No, apparently it was a single image. Check the sixth post at this link (http://www.friendlyskies.net/aoiforum/viewtopic.php?id=288) for the claim.
I see a claim for 11 hours.
Quote from: green_meklar on December 04, 2007, 11:56:42 AM
QuoteI'm guessing that what that person was rendering was an animation ;).
No, apparently it was a single image. Check the sixth post at this link (http://www.friendlyskies.net/aoiforum/viewtopic.php?id=288) for the claim.
Yeah, I see what you mean ;). Art of Illusion is a Java app, though, and from my experience runs really slowly, and the detail of the scene and his computer specs are also important.
QuoteI see a claim for 11 hours.
Then maybe you need to read what I said again, because evidently you missed the part where I clearly said 'sixth post'. :\
Okay the talk has spun way off topic. There is no need to keep discussing the matter of the long render and in which topic and post it actually appears in.
Thread closed!!!
"...my computer litraly blew up and i lost that picture."
Nice.
Quote from: green_meklar on December 05, 2007, 10:57:37 AM
QuoteI see a claim for 11 hours.
Then maybe you need to read what I said again, because evidently you missed the part where I clearly said 'sixth post'. :\