I'm a long time fan of Terragen, buying in to the original 2.0 pre-release deal prior to its release as a real product nearly a decade ago (really?). I've used it from time to time over the years, but only few times for professional work and then only using the barest minimum of its functionality. Every new release I keep getting sucked back in by the marketing images, I grab a demo, open the UI and my eyes glaze over. Everything about this app is so opaque. Then I look at the docs and I'm stunned that with each passing version there's still no real big-boy documentation. How can that be? Then I try to find some video training, and there's practically none out there that I've been able to find. It just makes me sad that I'll never be making anything remotely similar to those amazing images on the website and I turn away once more until the next version comes and the cycle repeats.
I've watched many of the free GeekAtPlay videos on YouTube, but I just don't find them all that useful, he kind of rambles and I find him difficult to understand. To me they don't come across as professional training videos. So I ask honestly how does one learn to use Terragen? I really, really want to get into using v4 before my demo runs out, but I think I'll be stuck in the same cycle as before. Will Terragen ever get any proper documentation and training? I can't believe that by v4 how little is actually covered, anywhere. And the wiki the app links to, if you look at the "recent changes" page, it literally hasn't gotten a single update in the past 6 months. So does that mean no ones bothered to add in a single line of info about version 4 to the "documentation" when it was released?? That is not a real release IMHO.
And before you write me off as a simpleton-hobbiest/newbie, I'm a 20 year CG veteran. I've used just about every high end 3D content creation app out there. I have licenses to maya, marvelous designer, ZBrush, modo, real-flow, syflex, the full Adobe CC suite, the full suite of Substance tool and many, many other 3D support apps, and I know how to use them all; 3D is how I make my living. Then I see terragen, with so many confusing buttons and impossible to understand nomenclature, disorganized UI and I am lost. So where to go to get to the next level? Am I the only one that feels this way?