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Terragen™ 2

TG2 Overview TG2 Image Gallery TG2 FAQ TG2 Tech Preview
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Introduction

Terragen 2 (TG2) is now the primary development focus of Planetside Software. TG2 is a complete rewrite of Terragen from scratch, and is a significant advance beyond the capabilities of Terragen v0.9. Apart from being a much more powerful renderer, TG2 has a much more flexible architecture which will allow development to proceed at a considerably greater pace.

Core Features

Terragen 2 features the following as part of its core architecture :

• Cutting-edge adaptive subdivision renderer.
• Modular, plugin-based architecture.
• Render entire planets, sweeping vistas, tiny rock gardens, or anything in between.
• Import 3D objects for rendering. Export high resolution objects.
• Render millions of boulders or trees using “instancing”.
• Add multiple heightfields to your scene. Use procedural terrains that can span an entire planet.
• Apply almost “infinite” fractal detail to terrain and other objects.
• Overhanging terrain using procedural displacements, image-based displacements, or imported geometry.
• Volumetric clouds or fast “2.5D” clouds.
• Production quality anti-aliasing and motion blur.
• Node graph editor for ultimate control over shaders and textures.

Terragen 2

The core technology in TG2 was used to render planets for Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 (article in Cinefex 93) and was also relied upon for hundreds of CG terrain shots in Stealth in 2005.

Download Mars animation

TG2 has a global atmosphere system which expands on the unsurpassed realism of the TG v0.9 atmosphere system. TG2 features multiple cloud layers, which can utilise 3D volumetric clouds or 2D clouds for faster rendering. Entire planets can be rendered with realistic global atmospheres and procedural terrain detail from continents down to pebbles on a beach. Multiple planets and celestial bodies such as moons can be added to scenes, and multiple suns can also be used.

TG2 features a realtime 3D preview which refines the detail displayed over time. The preview can be used to position the camera and scene elements. It provides an accurate preview of the landscape, texturing, atmosphere and other objects. cont….