Recent posts
#1
Terragen4. Mediterran landscapes Espana (2026)
Landscapes with Terragen highfields and backgrounds.
All Obj-models prepareted with Poser13 application.
(Obj model scale and texturing)
#2
Last post by raymoh - April 11, 2026, 12:47:49 PM
A hypothetical view of the surface of TRAPPIST-1 c, the second planet of the TRAPPIST-1 system, 40 light-years away.
TRAPPIST-1 c is a rocky planet, slightly more massive and slightly larger than the Earth. It is very likely that it has no atmosphere, or only a very thin one. The surface temperature is probably well above 100° C (212° F). The parent star TRAPPIST-1 appears 8 times larger in the sky than the Sun of the Earth, but it is hardly brighter than the Earth's sky just after sunset. This is because the tiny and faint star TRAPPIST-1 emits hardly any light in visible wavelengths. Due to the tidal locking, the star seems to be always at the same place in the sky.
In this representation, the star is in an active phase and is bombarding the planet with additional UV, X-ray and gamma radiation.
We also see the neighboring planet TRAPPIST-1 b in the sky, which has just finished a transit. It is more than twice as large in the sky as the Moon of the Earth. Barely visible in the upper left corner of the Sun is the faint reddish light dot of TRAPPIST-1 d in the sky.
#3
Terragen4 render. Exoplanet Terragen landscape (strata&outcrops)
in 3 perspectives. With extraterristical observatory and steamspaceship.
Obj-models prepareted with Poser13 (scale and textures)
#4
Last post by PuffnStuff - April 06, 2026, 02:22:53 AM
Right - got it. Here's a correct version of mine. I'm going to check yours out - I'll take your word for it that it's simpler.
#5
Last post by Dune - April 02, 2026, 01:46:57 AM
You did before, didn't you? So it should be the same procedure, just add an attachment. I also think as the 'thread owner' you can delete the original thread and make a new post.
Clips worked for me though.
Btw. there's more ways to get grids, so I had a go myself and came up with an alternative. Slightly less nodes.
#6
Last post by PuffnStuff - April 01, 2026, 08:40:17 AM
Dune, et al -
My apologies to all.
There's an error in one of these files - it was built from a custom shader setup and will try to connect to a non-existent shader node when inserted into a default project. (Missed that.)
Right. Now, as if that weren't stupid enough... how do I upload a corrected version into this thread? Any idea?
#7
Last post by xpez2000 - March 29, 2026, 02:19:04 AM
I am seeing tools like blender and editing tools and other apps having an MCP project created for the apps. Has there been any discussion about creating one for TERRAGEN. I don't know how to do it.. But imagining having an AI agent build something for me or test render a set of files while I slept or any kind of offloading tasks sounds just as good as the GPU renderer project.
#8
Last post by Dune - March 29, 2026, 02:02:57 AM
There's indeed a slight difference, and I like the right shadows and leaves better. But do I understand well that you don't use the alpha channel, but a darkened/greyed single image also as opacity mask (so leaf on grey)?
I always use the leaf image with a hard B&W opacity alpha channel (TIF), but decrease the opacity from 1 to maybe 0.75 in the default shader. As long as it's over 0.5 it'll keep the (hard) opacity, but significantly brightens shadows the same way you describe. With that method you don't have to change any original images.
#9
Last post by PuffnStuff - March 28, 2026, 08:07:23 AM
This is probably old news, but I've been working a bit with plant models lately and came up with a method to really improve the photorealism of leaves, fronds, etc.
I've always disliked the hard-edged shadows one gets from leaves, etc., even with soft shadows enabled. Another problem is the deep shadows in clumps of leaves - they tend to be too dark. In real life, leaves aren't completely opaque. If you hold a leaf up to the sun and place your finger behind it, you can see the shadow of your finger through the leaf, right? So, both the hard edge of the shadows and the unrealistically dark shadow deep in dense clumps of leaves might be addressed by making the leaf pass some light through. You can kind of fake the proper effect by tweaking the translucency of the leaves a bit, but it's not ideal.
Most plant models come with opacity masks for the leaves. They're usually hard white on black. I took a set of leaf textures from a model and darkened the entire image by ~50%, so pure white became a medium gray (RGB = 128,128,128), and the limited number of existing gray fade pixels on the opacity image retained their relative transparency compared to the previously completely opaque regions.
The result was what I was looking for. Probably not everyone will like the look, but I do. Check out the attached image. The tree on the left is the unretouched model, the one on the right has the opacity tweak. (Both are the same model.) And look at the shadows on the ground. Personally, I think it's a big improvement. It does make the leaves a little brighter, but you can dial down the Kd value below 0.8 (the default) to compensate. (I liked the lighter green on the one I modified, though.)
#10
Last post by PuffnStuff - March 28, 2026, 07:47:52 AM
Oh, and the handling re: the metalness parameter handling was useful, too.
