Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 21, 2016. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
When it comes to realistic, natural environments, Terragen is a frequently used tool in the VFX world. The tool from Planetside Software is used by Industrial Light and Magic, Weta Digital, and other VFX houses, among others. For anyone who does not know Terragen or has not used it yet: Planetside offers a “Feature Tour” on its website. We also have a detailed article about the software in our latest issue 07: 16—it is worth taking a look!
What Is New in Version 4?
The new version comes with a large number of new features in the areas of preview, cloud rendering, ozone simulation, rendering speed, lens effects, animation, and new shader improvements. We give you a summary below.
Ray-Traced Preview
The new preview gives the user fast results with ray tracing when working with objects, shaders, atmosphere, and lights. Planetside has uploaded examples to its YouTube channel.
Photorealistic Clouds?
Cloud renderings can quickly take on a very unrealistic character. With the new light-scattering model, Planetside now wants to address this, so photorealistic clouds can now be simulated with multiple light scattering. The new shader technology comes with several presets.
Create an Ozone Layer
The ozone-layer feature was also added for the first time with the 4.0 update. Planetside released a short before/after video for it.
Rendering Power
Also new in Terragen 4 is an improved render enginge, which is supposed to deliver more than twice the speed on average when rendering objects compared with Terragen 3. Planetside shows example photos with percentage comparisons on its website.
Other Things
Alongside the rendering improvements, Planetside has also introduced lens effects that work with high dynamic range and are intended to further increase the degree of realism with effects such as bloom and starburst, among others. In addition, motion can be brought into stills using motion blur and other tools.
Download & Price
For anyone who wants to test Terragen 4: there is a free version that can be downloaded here. However, you have to accept the lack of commercial use as well as limitations on resolution, detail level, and animation features. Students receive a full version of Terragen as long as it is used for learning purposes. You can apply for the student version here.
In addition to the free version, “Terragen 4 Creative” (approx. €328) and “Terragen 4 Professional” (€657) are also available. You can find an overview of the differences and features of the three versions here.
More about Terragen 4 here
More from Planetside at www.planetside.co.uk
