Hello i am new, some questions.

Started by Nala1977, April 10, 2020, 06:00:29 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Nala1977

Hey guys, i am tryin to learn Terragen, i having quite some difficulties on finding resources and documentation.

Im tryin to decide to invest into Terragen or Vue considering i have a Gaea license, so far i have a lot of confusion, Vue seems to have a way bigger audience and info pool where you can get a bit more info about it, while on Terragen side im really stuck, i can not find even a normal documentation, most of the wiki is an immense amount of text with very few examples and images which makes learning process very steep and tedious, counter productive in some cases.

here is the link i am currently reading https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Is that an outdated link? are there any well written documentation pdf or web pages? i am interested into cloud and atmospheric effects, and i can not find almost any info. Ive read Martin Huisman pdf about cloud function but that is related to Terragen 2. I've read that Terragen 4 has a whole new atmosphere and cloud system. Is there any documentation?

it looks to me like learning this software is just a trial and error process with a very technical documentation that has very few examples on a practical application. Im not saying the technical doc is a bad thing, but when you look elsewhere there are way more examples and tutorials in general which helps you learn the software a lot.

So am i missing something here? How do people learn this software? by changing a parameter and press render everytime to look at the result?
On another note also, i find the preview inside the software too much draft, you can barely see anything that is going on when you make a change, the visual UI is quite outdated.

So far im investing over 6 hours per day into tryin to learn this software and i feel like i am not making any progress, its hitting a wall after another.
My opinion is that having a very technical documentation that tells you what each parameter does without an example and an an overall bigger overview of how to proper merge together all the parameters, in which cases are better to use something or not, is a bit detrimental.

Just my opinion as a fresh and new user. Any info or help is much appreciated.
I just hope that forum QA isnt the way of learning this software because that is simply absurd.

KlausK

Hello

You won`t find any comparable kind of documention available to other 3D software.
It is the Wiki, this Forum and a handful of people who produce video tutorials every now and then.
The rest is up to you and your willingness and eagerness to tackle Terragen.
Search and browse this forum and you will see that you are beating a dead horse so to speak.
There simply seems not to be the manpower behind this software to get up to par with the rest of the 3D world.
That said...

This forum is a gold mine of information - you just have to dig it out.
A lot of the basic and often advanced processes described in older and old forum posts are still true and usable to this day.
Search and you will find. If not, ask and you will get help. There is no question asked unanswered here. Simple as that.

Lots and lots of files in the File sharing section to disect and learn from.

The Wiki holds a lot of information. Even if it is incomplete, very often outdated and more geared to the technical minded.
My first stop is always the Reference section. There are a lot of examples for nodes and settings in form of animated gifs.
Also, there are some good articles on the basics helping to understand the underlying inner workings of Terragen.
It is kind of old fashioned webbrowsing over there, though. Real hyperlink based browsing ;)

This is the -sad but true - bulk of people providing tutorials:
https://planetside.co.uk/terragen-tutorials/
at last most of them are free tutorials.

There are - very - few tutorials from bigger players, but not a lot.

So, that`s about it (I`d say).

"I just hope that forum QA isnt the way of learning this software because that is simply absurd."

If that is not the way you want to climb the Terragen ladder then you are out of luck. My personal 2 cents of course.

THAT SAID:
Terragen`s ability to render accurate and beautyful images of the earth, the atmosphere, clouds and the universe is - {42} - outstanding!
And you won`t find any better. This also seems to be the general consensus. You just have to find out how to to it.
CHeers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

Nala1977

Quote from: KlausK on April 10, 2020, 07:35:43 AMTHAT SAID:
Terragen`s ability to render accurate and beautyful images of the earth, the atmosphere, clouds and the universe is - {42} - outstanding!
And you won`t find any better. This also seems to be the general consensus. You just have to find out how to to it.
CHeers, Klaus
with all the respect can you please show me something comparable to these images made on terragen?

https://80.lv/articles/sky-creation-using-vue/

your post just makes me not even want to invest time into this, there is very few to little effort by the company to get people to learn this software, kind of a shame.

thanks for answering tho, i might just look elsewhere.

KlausK

"with all the respect can you please show me something comparable to these images made on terragen?"

No, I won`t go into this kind of discussion :-X. It is not for me to decide what is "better".
I have my preference, that is all.

Perhaps browse the Image section here in the forum, look at the twitter and/or facebook page of TG,
maybe render out some of the example files of the cloud library and decide for yourself.

As I said, just my thoughts about it. Others might have a completely different view.

CHeers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

SILENCER

We learn by doing

Best way is to take some existing TGD files apart, and begin to grasp how things operate.
That will also facilitate questions once you've seen how things work.


Terragen isn't terribly intuative, correct.  But, like guitar, once you learn a few scales, you'll be able to solo.
Anything worth excelling at isn't easy.

Look in the FILE SHARING section here, grab some of the scene files and explore.
'

WAS

Quote from: SILENCER on April 10, 2020, 12:21:05 PMTerragen isn't terribly intuative, correct.  But, like guitar, once you learn a few scales, you'll be able to solo.
Anything worth excelling at isn't easy.


That was a great analogy.

Don't hesitate to ask questions, regarding files you're dissecting or otherwise.

I don't have much up, but I am slowly doing quickie videos, and eventually plan tutorials when I get real time to record without a screaming child jumping around behind me.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYUVir16jJq9ii9sM3trOpg

Nala1977

im much interested into sky atmosphere to be honest, there are a plethora of softwares to create terrains with less headache, si i'd be using Gaea for that, i dont need anything extremely complex or that requires the amount of proceduralism Terragen gives.

I just want to focus on sky/atmosphere creation because its the only aspect of 3d/vfx where there are so few softwares that do that right. Terragen is one of these, Vue is the other one.

So where could i find a bit of documentation about the sky/clouds/atmo? Even on the official documentation there is absolutely nothing on clouds....

luvsmuzik

In the File Sharing section of the forum is the Cloud library. Users have accumulated clip files (tgc) and Terragen files (tgd) for sharing methods and techniques for cloud formations.

https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,3691.0.html

For more current shares try going to pages say...13 through 19 as these shares probably relate better to newer versions of TG.

It is not required to be a geologist, archeologist, meteorologist, or an astronaut to use Terragen, but it helps...haha

I am a hobbyist, using Terragen for fun for wow....over 20 years now.

jaf

Another way to find the "good stuff" is to go to the file sharing forum and look at the threads that have a lot of views/comments. The critiques/discussions can lead to a better understanding of Terragen.
(04Dec20) Ryzen 1800x, 970 EVO 1TB M.2 SSD, Corsair Vengeance 64GB DDR4 3200 Mem,  EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 Graphics 457.51 (04Dec20), Win 10 Pro x64, Terragen Pro 4.5.43 Frontier, BenchMark 0:10:02

masonspappy

As others have pointed out, the best way of achieving cloudscapes on the level you are looking for is to go through existing files (in file share section) and understand how those were put together. Then you'll want to come back and search through these forums to see if there are previous conversations matching your particular questions. And finally, don't hesitate to post your questions here. There is usually someone who can get back to you on best approaches to solving your question(s).

Dune

I don't think it's too hard to get excellent cloudscapes right from the start in Terragen. With the v3 clouds, and especially the 'easy clouds' (they came up in TG4, but TG4 it isn't a complete overhaul of TG2, so they work comparably) with a few clicks you can get great clouds. Sure, you can't really mold them (though masking is possible), but the image you posted can quite easily be replicated by importing a Gaea terrain (if you don't want to make it procedurally), and adding an easy cloud at the right altitude, and try a few seeds.

And for landscapes, indeed, do some tutorials and you'll get the hang of it. Like Silencer said, once you get the basics, progress will speed up. And then, for specific questions, here's the forum.

Good luck, anyway, and I hope you'll choose TG4.

WAS

We've honestly been covering a lot of these approached on the forums recently. Clouds following terrain, etc. Definitely take a look around.

Nala1977

hey guys i think im going to join the club :)

i am tryin to decide which version i want, i wont probably do commercial works its more of a passion, so yea.

can someone please explain to me what are these things, difference between professional and creative:

1) Image file processing node

2) Custom mesh deformation on objects

3) Georeferencing of heightfields/DEMs


thanks everyone for all the support so far :)

WAS

I'm actually not sure what the image file processing node is. Lol

Custom mesh deformations means you can warp a objects mesh with power fractals or other displacement.

90999730_2594620404156677_6570247180496404480_o.jpg
(Example of a deformed sphere object with my voronoi displacement shader)

Georeferencing of Heightfields/DEMs I believe means it can load internal geocoordinate information from heightmaps/DEMs in relation to Terragen.

KlausK

Was, you can find the "Image File Processor" node in the "Node Palette" under "Tools".

The node allows you to do post processing of images or animation sequences inside of TG.
Using the Render Layers you can output Motion Vector and Depth files together with your *.exr or *.tiff file/sequence and
apply Motion Blur (2D, I think) or some other post processing effects TG offers after rendering out the animation.
This is non-destructive, faster and controllable. And easily repeated with different settings if you don`t like what you get.
That`s about it what I know about the node.

Cheers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)