Comments on: photorealistic landscapes

photorealistic landscapes

crunchland — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 20:52:37 -0800

Terragen is a scenery generator, created with the goal of generating photorealistic landscape images and animations. It is available for Windows and the Mac OS. The newest version was released this week. Be sure and check out the gallery. (previously mentioned)

By: crunchland

crunchland — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 20:55:33 -0800

(more images generated with this software can be see here.)

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 20:58:10 -0800

Color me impressed. Thanks for this.

By: cedar

cedar — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:05:54 -0800

I played with this thing a long time ago on a crappy box and lacked the patience for the rendering times -- now that I have a better machine at my disposal I'm looking forward to another go. Thanks for reminding me.

By: Ryvar

Ryvar — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:09:18 -0800

I remember playing around with this back in 1998. It was awesome then, and it still is now. Most impressive is the long awaited importation of 3D models in Luc Bianco's gallery. This feature was first promised in . . . '99 or '00, I think, and is currently in alpha testing for Terragen 2. Can't wait to play with it.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:26:09 -0800

This is pretty fun, thanks. Is it supposed to instill God-like delusions?

By: duck

duck — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:36:40 -0800

Wow, even I can do this sort of...I mean I have some terrain...not nearly as pretty as the examples, but better than I would have thought I could do.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:43:36 -0800

Some of the pictures in the gallery are models of real mountans. I was looking at those, and I actualy forgot that I was looking at CG. I mean really, completly forgot. The totaly fictional scenes still look fake to me, though.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:49:22 -0800

I take that back, some of the images here do not look fake at all to me.

By: rolypolyman

rolypolyman — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 22:02:10 -0800

I'd be blown away by any renderings of Ringworld. Come on, Internet, make me some Ringworld renderings.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 22:31:54 -0800

Cool! New toys!

By: deafmute

deafmute — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:09:13 -0800

I used this for a project in my junior year of highschool, 5 years ago. Nice to see they're making some progress on it. It's still a pretty amazing tool.

By: muppetboy

muppetboy — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:28:26 -0800

cool. but yeah, there's something "off" about all these images. especially the foregrounds are weak because the living detail is missing. the clouds are a bit more impressive.

By: pandaharma

pandaharma — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:18:39 -0800

Terragen is an incredible program which I've used for the past five years and even liked it enough to register it. Its fairly easy to make detailed renderings of real-life places, using USGS DEM's, or the high resolution mappings of Mars. Using some of the preliminary images released by NASA after the probe impacted the comet, I was able to render a rough approximation of what the comet's surface would look like. The software still has a few rough edges, but it was worth the money just for the entertainment value alone, and I'm very excited about Terragen 2, though I'll probably have to get a system upgrade just to handle it.

By: Enron Hubbard

Enron Hubbard — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 04:17:43 -0800

cool. but yeah, there's something "off" about all these images. Sure, you can do better with MAX or Maya, but keep in mind this is a free demo program that costs $99 to register. (I bet you could composite Terragen background and, say, a MAX radiosity/GI foreground with good results.) The new Version 2 TGD looks even better. Don't miss these or these. I especially got a kick out of this after the Monument Valley post from yesterday.

By: grrarrgh00

grrarrgh00 — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 04:24:16 -0800

I love how we all used this program years ago. I, too, was in that club. Many wonderful hours spent tweaking fake landscapes. That was the life. Really nice to see it's still around.

By: kaemaril

kaemaril — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 05:12:03 -0800

I thought Terragen was something to do with the Inhumans :)

By: ubersturm

ubersturm — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 14:47:08 -0800

I downloaded this three or four years ago, I think, and it was awesome then. The pictures made by the new version look even more incredible...

By: joelf

joelf — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:19:05 -0800

The totaly fictional scenes still look fake to me, though. funny, that.

By: umberto

umberto — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:58:16 -0800

Wow, thanks for reminding me of this. I, too, used it years ago and despite the shear 'coolness' of it was forced to give it up because of limited computer muscle. In fact, Ryvar, you may have shown me this. (Happily waxing Godlike....)

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:41:32 -0800

Nice! Thanks

By: mitocan

mitocan — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 02:33:18 -0800

How about .. Terragen meets Google Earth?

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 04:14:04 -0800

Terragen is great fun (I've been playing with it for years, too) but somehow all I seem to make is dramatic, glaciated fiords, or barren mars-like landscapes. That monument valley one is fantastic.