Terragen 2.0 review @ 3D World Magazine

[Tangled-Universe]

In this month's issue of 3D World you can find a review of Terragen 2.0 on pages 92+93.
The review has been written by Cirstyn Bech-Yagher (northern-studios.com).

Terragen 2.0 is rated 8/10 which I think is a good estimation/evaluation.
The cons she mentions like TG2 being crash-prone, poorly documented and still renders slowly are well known, but certainly true of course.
Further she mentions that TG2 still misses the ability to build a set of instances with which you can populate your terrain. like Vue. I agree.

I agree with the critics she writes so far, however I'm a bit disappointed by the depth of the review.
For example she doesn't mention anything about the possibilities for realistic procedural terrain creation, nor about the fake stone shader, the watershader or about the planetary atmosphere and cloud system which is unique. It merely covers the improvements compared to the 0.9 version which is in my opinion not relevant anymore because it's outdated to today's standards.

I understand the space offered by 3D World is very limited and therefore she can't deal with every aspect, but she certainly missed some of the very strongest points of TG2.
The screenshots and work by her found on the web give me the impression she's not really experienced with it and/or hasn't explored it thoroughly enough, which can be a lack of time issue as well of course.
However, she's experience in many other disciplines which should make her educated enough to give a good estimation of TG2's value to the market and integration into production-pipelines. Like I said before I'm a bit disappointed about the things she missed.
Logically a review written by people from the forum wouldn't result in an objective review, at least, I couldn't but perhaps in the future 3D World could try to address to reviewers with considerable amount of experience with TG2 and its integration into professional studio-pipelines. I'm thinking about people like Jim Bowers.
So to be clear, this is not a critique on the reviewer, but rather on 3D World mag.

Still I'm glad 3D World published a review about TG2. The review is positive and I hope this will stimulate the TG2-society even further and perhaps makes it possible in the (not so) nearby future for Planetside to expand its developing team to hit some serious nails on the head.

Did anybody else read the review as well? If so, what do you think of it?

Cheers,
Martin

[FrankB]

Seems we have to write up our own review :-)
But you're right, it would be best to have an author, or multiple authors, who also know other 3D packages equally well, so that the review is thorough and correctly compared against competitive offerings.

Frank

[rcallicotte]

I am almost certain I have the magazine, but haven't read it yet.  Look forward to seeing what was done.

[Tangled-Universe]

Well, please let us know Calico.

Martin

[rcallicotte]

Martin, I have the July 2009 issue.  I'm only guessing that the August issue is the one you are referencing and we (the U.S.) haven't seen it yet.

[Tangled-Universe]

Martin, I have the July 2009 issue.  I'm only guessing that the August issue is the one you are referencing and we (the U.S.) haven't seen it yet.

I guess so, unless they have 2 complete different issues but I can't believe that.
It's the one with the transformers on the cover (issue is an ILM-special)
Let's sit and wait then

Martin

[Hetzen]

It was shoved under my nose the other day. Didn't think much of the write up at all.

[Henry Blewer]

Many of these writers in the magazines are communications majors. Many really do not have viable skills for doing anything but talk or write. So, I doubt the author really knew what he was doing with the software. (Hell, I've only scratched the surface.) Because the software makes you actually think about how and what you are doing, he probably could not use it.

[jo]

With a 8/10 score I wouldn't be complaining :-). It'll be interesting to see when it's available.

There is one Mac magazine I've always been reticent to have TG reviewed in because their reviews are inconsistent. I thought they gave Mojoworld a higher rating than it deserved and I worked on the first Mac version! The reviewer also seemed to have the same sort of problem of not going deep enough and seemed to get a bit sucked into the hype of MW, IIRC. Conversely I've seen reviews of software I've used where they've picked up on some relatively minor issue and made a really big deal about it, even though overall the software is good.

It's a funny old business, reviewing. I write reviews for a website on something completely unrelated to TG or even computers :-). On a website with more space available you can really get into the teeth of something and take it to bits. However I know someone who writes reviews for a magazine in the same field and while he's very good at it, with such limited space available you can often only touch on the good and bad points and try and give your overall impression. I could never do reviews for a magazine, far too wordy ;-). In a lot of cases you also wouldn't have the time to really get to grips with something, once you're committed to a space to fill and have a deadline.

Regards,

Jo

[Henry Blewer]

I did not mean to come across as saying that all reviews and reviewers were bad. Not all people who are into communications are bad either.  However, a great many are. I live in what is referred to as a small market. Too often we end up with the mediocre people writing in the newspaper (there's only one) or broadcasting the news.
Anyway, I'm happy to say I am wrong on this thread. I had not read the article. I did go to the magazine's site, but there was not anything to read about Terragen 2, except there was a review. From the thread, I thought the reviewer had really given Terragen 2 a bad review.
Sorry if I ruffled the proverbial feathers, Jo. I must say, that your posts have always been concise and insightful.

[bertrand]

Let's keep things in perspective guys. I'm a 3DW subscriber, I've read the review, and I must say it is as glowing as it can be while still remaining objective.

Obviously, the repeated comparisons with Terragen 0.9 are slightly silly, given how much water has flown under the bridge. Comparisons with Vue 7.5 would have been much more interesting and I do agree with some people here that the author doesn't seem to be very well-versed in the app.

The key, though, is that the bottom line is extremely positive. Given the huge backlash Vue is now experiencing among its more professional users becaus of its instability and the company's price policy, I would think a review like that would come at exactly the right time for those frustrated people looking to ditch Vue. Add the interesting import-export scripts doing the rounds for 3dsMax and all of the sudden, TG2 is becoming a really attractive option for a lot of pro Vfx and (potentially) even some vizualisation studios.

My concern, however, is that a lot of these people could still be turned off by TG2's shortcomings, which Planetside really should address quickly. My main concern is the absence of a 64-bit version (memory limitation seems to be the main source of crashes) and the fact that TG2 buckles when using more than 4 cores, which make it almost useless in a production environment. That, I think, should be addressed without delay, and long before Planetside starts thinking of integration with other apps. I think it was fair for the (still very positive) reviewer to address these points.

[jo]

Hi Bertrand,

My concern, however, is that a lot of these people could still be turned off by TG2's shortcomings, which Planetside really should address quickly. My main concern is the absence of a 64-bit version (memory limitation seems to be the main source of crashes) and the fact that TG2 buckles when using more than 4 cores, which make it almost useless in a production environment. That, I think, should be addressed without delay, and long before Planetside starts thinking of integration with other apps. I think it was fair for the (still very positive) reviewer to address these points.

We're working on these issues now. We've started on the work we need to do for 64 bit. That's taken a bit of a back seat to a new release with bug fixes and enhancements which is shortly to enter alpha testing. Then we'll be getting stuck into the animation module before work starts on 64 bit in earnest.

Once my new machine turns up I'll be looking into core scaling issues, primarily on the Mac but also on Windows. Windows scales a bit better than the Mac version at the moment, I think on a Core i7 or Nehalem machine you can go up beyond 4 cores on Windows. I'll be looking into that in parallel with the previously mentioned items, and I'm sure Matt will be too.

Regards,

Jo

[cyphyr]

Good to hear there's a new version in the pipeline. So the animation module is taking precedence, I'd have thought the 64 bit version would be more useful, most people who animate already have solutions (cumbersome but workable) but nobody has access to the full power of out machines since most (if not all) machines are 64bit capable now given software that can take advantage of the extra ram. Bringing in a whole new area to Terragen would only bring in a bunch of new bugz that'll need squashing. Also surely the animation module is something that would take full advantage of the extra resources 64bit gives; cart before horse ...
keep up the good work, I await with breath abated
Richard

[rcallicotte]

This sounds refreshing.

Then we'll be getting stuck into the animation module before work starts on 64 bit in earnest.

[bertrand]

Thanks for the info Jo.

I upgraded my workstation (8 cores, Nehalem) a few weeks ago but haven't tested TG2 on it yet since I assumed it wouldn't handle more than 4 cores. I guess I should give it another go.

Core scaling is a pretty vital issue for apps that rely on slow, high-quality renderers like Tg2, I would have thought.