View source for Terragen Network View Guide

== Node Lists and the Node Network ==

Nodes in Terragen are displayed in both the Node Lists and the Node Network. By default both are visible in every layout. The Node List is in the upper-left of the UI and the Node Network occupies the lower-right. In general changes will be reflected in both views, however the relationships between nodes are displayed differently in each.

The node network displays all nodes as differently coloured boxes. Inputs and outputs are shown as triangular protrusions from the top and bottom of a node, respectively. Input goes into ports on the top of the device and flows out through ports on the bottom. Connections are represented with simple light-coloured lines. 

The node network view is mostly “flat” in that almost all nodes are shown at once, on the same level. Unlike the Node Lists this includes those nodes that are “owned” or created by another, nodes inside of groups, and nodes that are above another node in a branch of the network. The exceptions to this are Object and Population nodes. Object nodes often encapsulate other nodes, which are “contained” within the parent node. You can right-click an object node and go to Internal Network to view any devices inside it. This will take you into a view that shows only the nodes inside that particular object node. Right-click on an empty area of the workspace and choose Up One Level to return to the previous network view. Alternatively you can use the Up Level button which appears at the top of the bookmark list on the left whenever you are inside an “internal network”.

The node list is designed to show a simplified view of the devices in a given layout. The display is a simple “ordered list”, which roughly shows the “order of execution” of devices in the layout: in general a device above another device acts as the source for the device that follows. In most cases the nodes displayed are also limited to those of a specific type. For example in the Objects layout any textures assigned to your objects will not be shown because they are not Object nodes. Network connections are not shown directly in the node list but are usually represented by the list hierarchy. There are two primary node list views which communicate different hierarchical information. Each view is specific to particular layouts.

The Objects, Atmosphere, Lighting, Camera and Renderer layouts use a view that does not show network branching but does show “internal” devices. This view does not indent devices in the list and instead it uses forward slashes / to represent the node’s “depth” in the network. At the top level all nodes are preceded by a single /, for example “/Atmosphere 01”. Each sub-level is represented by an additional trailing /, much like a regular directory and sub-directory view in Windows. For example “/Pop Obj reader 01/Obj reader 01” shows an Object Reader node named “Obj reader 01” inside of a Population node named “Pop Obj reader 01”.

The Terrain, Shader and Node Network layouts all use an indented, collapsible hierarchy view. This more directly shows the relationships between nodes in layouts where branching and greater network complexity are likely. The basic view shows nodes connected by dashed lines. By default only the top level of the network is visible. Nodes with network branches attached to one of their inputs, or which have devices inside of them (Object nodes), will have a + symbol to the left of the node which can be pressed to expand the view of the next level of the network. Different levels of the network will be indented to represent their “depth”, either in a network branch or within another node. All nodes are connected by dashed lines which follow and illustrate the hierarchy of the network. Again this is very similar to the Windows Explorer interface.