Terragen 2.1 Free Non-Commercial Edition

[frank beckmann]

can be downloaded here: http://www.planetside.co.uk/content/view/21/36/

Cheers
Frank

[SurfingAlien]

cool, thanks for the link Frank!

cheers,
A

[tom28]

Thanks Frank!

[podperson]

Terragen 1 was completely free and completely unusable if I recall correctly. Interesting that it's now MORE expensive than Vue (http://www.vue8.com/) which has both a free version (http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_8_pioneer/index.php) and products starting at $99 (with far superior vegetation options).

Edit: it looks like Vue Pioneer stamps a logo on your renders and limits their size (slightly more annoying than Terragen's free version which only seems to restrict render size). But for $69 you can remove that limitation... so it seems to me Vue 1, Terragen 0.

Strange marketing.

[Targos]

Vue does seem to have various stages of annoying crippledness.

You want to export skybox? Upgrade to infinite. You want to export plants as geometry? Upgrade to infinite...

of course Ive got a "long way" to do skyboxes..

What about DEM maps> Unity via Vue? Any idea about that pipeline Tonio?

Aaron

[frank beckmann]

What about DEM maps> Unity via Vue?

I´d use Bryce for that.

Cheers
Frank

[podperson]

I think Vue is stupendously superior to Bryce -- including handling of DEM maps (it is used for feature films, Bryce is a toy). Can't say much about Terragen.

Vue is basically $600 for the works, vs. somewhat more for Terragen. And Terragen can't match many of Vue's features (e.g. Terragen's pricer options include a library of pregenerated plants, Vue has plant generators).

The render I showed is from the free version and includes plants, procedural volumetric clouds, heightfields AND procedural terrain. For $69 I could render arbitrary sizes, HDR, and no logo. And Vue8's UI actually kind of makes sense to me.

[Tartiflette]

To be honest, for me, there is NO competition between Terragen and Vue.

Vue does a lot of things quite well but for ultimate realism in landscape rendering Terragen does wonders whereas you can distinguish any Vue renders in seconds...

That has been my experience so far, not to say that Vue 8 is virtually unusable on Mac (at least on my iMac Core i5...), has always been unstable, and, well i'll stop here before being rude !

If Terragen wasn't so slow to render, i would have bought it since a long time with its Xfrog bundle, it's one hell of a deal, and less expensive than Vue 8 Infinite.


Cheers,
Laurent aka Tartiflette :)

[podperson]

The $999 Terragen bundle includes the XFrog software, so it's definitely a good deal.

Vue Infinite is $899 though ...

[Tartiflette]

The $999 Terragen bundle includes the XFrog software, so it's definitely a good deal.

Vue Infinite is $899 though ...
Well, i was speaking of the 699$ deal, as Xfrog isn't available on Mac OS X. :wink:

The Xfrog preset trees are very good in almost every case (except they can be really heavy but Terragen deal with that without a problem...) and as i'm not a botanist, i don't have a clue how to edit the trees anyway, so the deal without editing of the trees is a really good one for me. :)

If only i had more time to understand how to optimize Terragen to render in a reasonnable amount of time, i think i'd end up doing just landscapes, as the renders it produces are perfect ! :cool:


Cheers,
Laurent aka Tartiflette :)

[SurfingAlien]

sorry for the stupid question... but will terragen be able to export Xfrog plants in other *usable* format as .obj and the like? if so then the bundle for 699$ it's a huge deal if you consider the cost of Xf plants dvds... even if you only use Tgen as a pure translator

[frank beckmann]

sorry for the stupid question... but will terragen be able to export Xfrog plants in other *usable* format as .obj and the like?
In short: Nope.

Cheers
Frank

[Tartiflette]

I don't think so, unfortunately. :frown:

However, a DVD is "only" 140$ if i remember correctly and already contains like 30 high definitions plants so you end up quite quickly with something interesting. :cool:


Cheers,
Laurent aka Tartiflette :)

[SurfingAlien]

I don't think so, unfortunately. :frown:

However, a DVD is "only" 140$ if i remember correctly and already contains like 30 high definitions plants so you end up quite quickly with something interesting. :cool:


Cheers,
Laurent aka Tartiflette :)

yep, but unfortunately I'd like a couple of plants from each dvd... it would be nice to have single plants available for purchase...

so that's another point for Vue (from Complete on, or any with the export module... "only" 149$)

I bought some Xfrog plant samples for Bryce during last Daz3D sales and was able to export them in .obj+.mtl+textureMaps using 7beta (the Cherry tree I used in the Mies, Barcelona and Zen scene comes from there...)

thanks for the info,
Ale

[frank beckmann]

For non commercial purpose you can grab some Plants from here: http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/plantslib/

Especially some of the trees are really heavy:frown:

Cheers
Frank

PS: 7beta is able to export trees - but I´m not sure if its implementation is completed yet.

[podperson]

Laurent -- I take it you've had serious stability problems with Vue? It seemed to work fine for me (and its UI is a lot less "from Mars" than, say, Vue 6 or Bryce), although I didn't try anything major.

My big issue with Terragen right now is that it doesn't export (and you aren't licensed to redistribute plant geometry from XFrog, I assume). While I agree that it looks like Terragen's renderer probably has an edge of Vue's (not that either is perfect), from a game dev/realtime viewpoint, not being able to export and distribute geometry is a dealbreaker. Terragen is promising FBX export "real soon now" -- but again, will we be licensed to distribute XFrog content? I highly doubt it.

As far as I can tell, for any given level of functionality (stability aside) Vue is cheaper.

[SurfingAlien]

For non commercial purpose you can grab some Plants from here: http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/plantslib/

Especially some of the trees are really heavy:frown:

Cheers
Frank

PS: 7beta is able to export trees - but I´m not sure if its implementation is completed yet.

great link Frank, thank you!
BTW for non-commercial you can always export any standard/modified plant from Vue Infinite PLE...

I own Bryce 6.x but can't really say I'm a brycer... that said I saw they have great plans for the final 7 release, so let's wait and see (well, honestly it was quite surprising for me to see some further development when 6.3 came out...)

cheers,
Alessandro

[podperson]

Especially some of the trees are really heavy

Yeah -- I'm not sure how much use I have for 22MB maple tree models -- so whether or not I can export them is kind of moot.

[frank beckmann]

I own Bryce 6.x but can't really say I'm a brycer... that said I saw they have great plans for the final 7 release, so let's wait and see (well, honestly it was quite surprising for me to see some further development when 6.3 came out...)

I´m enjoying the beta right now; instancing is fun and the true ambience is now working. 6.3 was a joke and worse than 6.1 was. But it´s coming quite nicely - but I guess we have to pay at least for all the stuff that´s broken since 5.5 :frown:

Cheers
Frank

[Tartiflette]

Laurent -- I take it you've had serious stability problems with Vue? It seemed to work fine for me...
Well, stability is a problem for sure, but the most annoying thing is the UI responsivness, which is really horrible to be honest.

Something like 3/4 seconds lag when clicking on a button or trying to edit anything, even with small scenes (because except the already made scenes, it would be pure madness to try to do anything complex with Vue..). :frown:

I haven't tried the last iteration of Vue as i don't have a license of Vue 8 and i can just try the demo, but from what i have seen it doesn't push me to upgrade to the last release of this soft. :frown:

As for the possibility of exporting, i totally agree that Terragen must improve in this area, and that's probably one of the biggest reason why it has become so confidential now. I think that if they want to sell, they need to allow Terragen to talk to other applications, as the vast majority of users don't want to just "play" with Terragen. ( i admit i'm just hypnotized by Terragen renders, even if i'm far from being a "landscape Lover"... :redface: )

And, as usual, it's the user that determines what best suit his needs and his preferences. :)


Cheers,
Laurent aka Tartiflette :)

[podperson]

Something like 3/4 seconds lag when clicking on a button or trying to edit anything

Actually I have noticed this and it is infuriating (how did they screw that up, I wonder?). I actually got used to it fairly quickly, although with a complex operation it would probably be unbearable.

It seems like something that ought to be easy to fix (I guess that they are doing their own -- very dodgy -- event handling. They need to suck it up and write an OS abstraction layer for events.)

It's a shame -- Vue's pricing is both quite good and flexible, and their feature set is awesome.

But I guess if C3D gets volumetrics, scriptable instancing, and a few tweaks to baking we won't really need it ;-)

[Meshman]

I´m enjoying the beta right now; instancing is fun and the true ambience is now working. 6.3 was a joke and worse than 6.1 was. But it´s coming quite nicely - but I guess we have to pay at least for all the stuff that´s broken since 5.5 :frown:

Cheers
Frank

Hi Frank
Is there any info online about the beta (i.e. non-confidential). I'd be interested to see where things are at with Bryce (I was a beta tester back on version 3 or 4, can't remember now). I haven't used it for years but have recently been thinking about getting hold of a newer copy (can't run any of the versions I have anymore) as I miss the fun element of Bryce sometimes.
cheers
Daryl

[frank beckmann]

Hi Frank
Is there any info online about the beta (i.e. non-confidential). I'd be interested to see where things are at with Bryce (I was a beta tester back on version 3 or 4, can't remember now). I haven't used it for years but have recently been thinking about getting hold of a newer copy (can't run any of the versions I have anymore) as I miss the fun element of Bryce sometimes.

Hi Daryl.
You need a valid serial number of at least Bryce6. Then you could have your start here: Bryce7beta (http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=130693&trid=847606066)

Cheers
Frank

[podperson]

I've been burned by Bryce WAY too many times -- I think I've bought it three times now (original, "Bryce 3d", and Bryce 6)... I think I'd rather pay $(2 x X) for a rival product that was halfway decent than $X for Bryce at this point.

[archie]

lately i tried to render an animation with vue and discovered that the procedural terrains totally don't work because they render differently depending on the angle = evil flickering. :frown:
but now i have invested around 250 € in vue already and will not spend more money on other apps.
at least vue offers nice translucent effects with headlight, something i haven't seen in bryce or terragen shots yet, also not possible with cheetah now.

9988

[frank beckmann]

at least vue offers nice translucent effects with headlight, something i haven't seen in bryce or terragen shots yet, also not possible with cheetah now.
Like so?
http://www.planetside.co.uk/images/stories/planetside/ryan-archer-golden-forest.jpg

Cheers
Frank

[archie]

Like so?
http://www.planetside.co.uk/images/stories/planetside/ryan-archer-golden-forest.jpg

Cheers
Frank

hi frank,

excellent example of how it should not look like ! :smile:
at that angle the leaves should be glowing green or red and yellow, but it seems in that image he chose conifers to circumvent the software's incapabilities.
of course i'm aware that an effect like in the photo below is difficult to code and expensive at rendering but at least e-on took a step in that direction.

regards,
archie

9989

[Meshman]

Hi Daryl.
You need a valid serial number of at least Bryce6. Then you could have your start here: Bryce7beta (http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=130693&trid=847606066)

Cheers
Frank

Thanks Frank. I don't have 6. I think my most recent version is v4 (the one where trees first made an appearance). I'll have to think about it and decide whether to upgrade at the moment or not.

[Meshman]

I've been burned by Bryce WAY too many times -- I think I've bought it three times now (original, "Bryce 3d", and Bryce 6)... I think I'd rather pay $(2 x X) for a rival product that was halfway decent than $X for Bryce at this point.

Being the first 3D app I ever used I'm still always smitten by that mirrored ball floating over the ocean - there will always be a special place in my heart for Bryce :)