Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 25, 2012. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Work with animation data has been substantially improved in Terragen 2.4. Since Version 2.4, users have had access to a new panel with a timeline, Curve Editor, and Dope Sheet. According to Planetside Software, bugs in resources previously used for animation have also been fixed.
Caching Global Illumination data in a file or in a sequence of data provides better image quality. This is beneficial when rendering enormously large images over a network after first dividing them into tiles. The resulting GI cache ensures that each tile accesses the same GI data and that a pre-pass is not required for every tile in order to prevent image distortions. For animations, Terragen can read and blend more than one file. The result of this process makes transitions smoother and prevents flickering between frames.
The following video shows an animation called "Garden of Eternity". It was rendered with a GI cache for every fifth frame and an interpolation of three GI solutions for each rendered frame.
New Surface Editing
A new function called "Lean to normal" ensures that the rotation of instances via the population nodes tilts according to the terrain’s surface normals. New shaders and functional nodes were also added. A new Vector Displacement Shader replaces several previously used displacement shaders that were needed for the same effect. This shader can consist of a vector function or a constant vector offset, but both can also be used together for deformation.
The "Displacement Shader to Vector" node focuses on converting the input signals of the deformation into a vector function and preparing them for every node that can deform via a function.
Packaging Made Easy
Using the "Export Gathered Project" function, all relevant project data can be packed into a new folder and provided with a new TGD containing all new references. From this perspective, nothing stands in the way of simple porting of projects.
All new features, changes, and bug fixes can be viewed in the release log. Terragen 2.4 is available now, and the update is free for licensed customers of Version 2. A free and restricted Lite version is available for testing the product.
