Terragen

[cameron1991]

Terragen is a wonderful program that can create and render landscapes in amazing detail. It is sort of like terraforming in SC4, except it produces images of better quality.
Heres some examples of what I made and rendered in about half an hour.....





And this last one which has a slight gap in the atmosphere due to the angle I rendered this image from...


As you can see it is an amazing program that is extremely simple to use, and its free!
If you want to see some incredibly detailed and high quality images then you can find them here in the gallery at the terragen website
For first time users an extremely helpful tutorial is available here

Thats it for now, but I want to see what you can create with Terragen, so please post pictures of what you have made here for everyone to see.

---Note to moderators, I wasn't sure where to post this topic, so I posted it here, These aren't real pictures (although some do look pretty damn realistic) but they are frozen in time, so move to wherever you think is appropriate.---

[zero7]

I've played with terragen just to generate bitmaps for creating SC4 regions, but I'v enever actually used it's rendering capability.  Some of the results you've got here are pretty convincing.  Looking forward to seeing more.

Maybe there should be a CGI art section to keep this sort of thing separate from the photography.  It might encourage some artistic Max creations too ...

[jayo]

I've played with terragen just to generate bitmaps for creating SC4 regions, but I'v enever actually used it's rendering capability.  Some of the results you've got here are pretty convincing.  Looking forward to seeing more.

Maybe there should be a CGI art section to keep this sort of thing separate from the photography.  It might encourage some artistic Max creations too ...

What he said 

It looks good.Is it free??

[cameron1991]

The unregistered version is free, but you can only render images up 1280x960 and it doesn't have some of the advanced anti-aliasing modes

[Ennedi]

Very good idea with this thread!

I downloaded Terragen about six months ago, but I didn't know how to make various textures. And now I know - this tutorial behind your link is really extremely useful!
But I don't know when I will have some time to play with it...

[cameron1991]

Its great you found that tutorial so useful Ennedi!

I didn't actually make the textures on my terrains in the pictures above, I downloaded them from Terranuts. Its a basically a Terragen fansite much like SC4D is a fansite to SC4. It has a download section with heaps of textures and other bits and pieces for Terragen. I also found a website with a plugin called Waterworks, which can add water effects to water.
I hope you find these sites useful 

[beskhu3epnm]

I use terragen exclusively as part of my map making procedure. I use the file structure mostly, but I have dabbled here and there in landscape generation.

I can convert a GEOtiff DEM to Terragen, which I'd imagine would create a RL image... just have to figure out the scale.

Neat thread, thought I was the only one here using it.

[Heblem]

I made this sometime ago with the unregistered version but never understand how to do it realistic, this looks a bit bare..

This picture is a sunset 

[Pat]

WOW those are amazimg photos.... Hab i really love how your photo has a night effect to it.... its breath taking.... gary i love Winter at 3 sisters mnt...

[cameron1991]

WOW Vandy, those images are amazing! Especially "Sunset over the Ocean" and "Running Offshore at Sunset" LOL I thought they were real photos until I read the writing 

Anyway, heres some of my pictures

"Blue" (I know, really original name...)


And this one (haven't named it yet...)


I like to make a world with terragen, find a spot on the world I like, and make renders of it with lots of different surfaces, atmospheres etc to see how well they turn out...

"Blue" was entirely accidental, I was playing around with atmosphere settings I think, and that was how it turned out

The other image was rendered like all my other renders, with surface maps downloaded off Terragen fansites on the internet
(Im still learning how to make decent surfaces)

I hope you enjoy these pictures...

[cameron1991]

Ok, time to revive this thread!
Heres a scene I rendered earlier today.
Its a tropical island with a bay with underwater flora, or a reef, or whatever you want to call it! 
Im quite happy with how it turned out, but there are a few things which need to be fixed.
The hills are too straight and pointy.
And there is grass (green colour  ) on the cliffs, it should be the red/orange rock colour instead.
Anyway heres the picture.



Personally Im really happy with how the water turned out.
Please tell me what you think about it!

[Pat]

Cameron that is looking real sweet and btw where is that you are getting these pics, are you making them or PS'ing them???

[cameron1991]

Cameron that is looking real sweet and btw where is that you are getting these pics, are you making them or PS'ing them???

Im making these with a program called Terragen, see my first post in this thread for more details about it 
BTW, my photoshopping skills are rather limited lol

Also, heres two more scenes I rendered yesterday, both are of the same mountain, but taken at slightly different angles.
Please tell me what you think about these scenes:




I personally like the one with snow the best, but I like the sky from the other one.

[Pat]

ahhh ok now I understand!!! Either way they both look real good cameron.... I do agree I have to side with the snow pic the most though...

[Pat]

OK cameron you more or less convinced me to go and download this and well here is my first pic... I dont understand how to save it, but I did a print screen and from there pasted it into paint.... anyways here is my first try at Terragen..........

[cameron1991]

Thats very good for a first try Pat!
But just one tip,
You are using the "3D Preview" to show your terrains, and that is why they do not look very detailed in your picture.
Apply a Surface Map, under the landscape window. You can create your own, or download maps created by other Terragen users, which I found by google searching "Terragen surface maps" or similar.
(sorry I can currently only provide a link to one site as I haven't bookmarked any, and my internet has been capped, so I'm running at dialup until May 15)
the only link i currently have is http://kingmango.deviantart.com/art/Terragen-Surface-Maps-Pack-1-24562158

Once you have applied a surface map (it doesn't show in "3D Preview"), click "Rendering controls" (top right of your screen, under "world file") From there you can adjust the camera settings on the right side of the window, and rendering settings on the left side.You can render a small preview of your scene and once you are happy with it, change image resolution under "image size" and then sit back and wait while Terragen renders a highly detailed scene for you!

Also to get rid of the black area under your sky, go to the "cloudscape" window and increase "sky size" until the black area disappears.

I'm sorry if this post was hard to follow, the tutorial in my first post explains it much better, but hopefully you can find this useful Pat! 

[Pat]

OOOOH YeS I did Cameron, I love nature scapes and well I've been puttsing around with the Idea of mapping...  Seeing what you've done has just given me that extra kick!!

[Pat]

WoW!!!!!! Gary that is stunning!!!

[wouanagaine]

[shameless plug]
All the environment on this game I worked on were made using terragen


http://www.youtube.com/v/HK1hhWmd8Uk&hl=fr
[/shameless plug]

[Pat]

Ooooooh my Wou that is simply amazing!!! The game and terrain as well!!!  btw is the game avaible anywhere yet?