I've had terragen2 for a while now and I haven't every managed to resolve this one concern. I really love the program, but the only thing I dislike is the really slow amount of time which it takes to update previews (non renders). Is this a constant issue with Terragen2 on all computers or is it dependent upon a certain spec such as CPU/RAM?
I know I can double full render time by rendering two images at once (for skyboxes etc) but why is it taking me so long to see a small preview of a detailed scene? It can be a bummer to wait 8-12 hours for a render only to realize I don't like the outcome. This is really tough for trying to experiment with objects/land.
Right now I am using a gtx260 gpu, a 3 ghz athlon x2, win7 and 4 gb ram.
I know full renders as well take up time in all 3d apps, but is that a ram related task? Can I ultimately improve the preview and render screen speed by adding more ram?
The major problem with the 3D preview is that it is currently not multithreaded, unlike the main renderer. Until it becomes multithreaded it can often be faster just to setup a low detail "quick render" node and use that for previews. If you want to use the preview, e.g. for navigation, turning off certain elements can speed things up a lot. There are buttons along the top that allow you to turn on and off the atmosphere and lighting, both of which can help.
- Oshyan
I turn off the atmosphere most of the time. With that off, my P4 can update the preview faster.