Today we're extremely excited to be able to offer a free open beta of Terragen 4. There are some big changes in Terragen 4, including the all-new realtime ray-traced preview, amazingly realistic cloud shading model, lens effects, improved render times, and much more. If you've been following our Terragen4.com updates, you've heard all about it. Now you can try it out for yourself!
The beta version is completely free and unrestricted, with all Terragen 4 features available for you to test during the period of the beta. The beta will expire and will no longer run once Terragen 4.0 is released as a final version in the near future. In the meantime download and enjoy all that Terragen 4 has to offer!
(note: only the 64 bit Windows version is available at this time - the Mac version is coming soon!)
Download the Terragen 4 Beta: http://terragen4.com/beta
And read through our guide to the Realtime Preview (RTP) in Terragen 4 to learn how to get the most out of this powerful new workflow enhancement: http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21730.0.html
Release notes and change log: http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21732.0.html
- Oshyan
Thank you very much! Just downloaded it.
Can we install side by side with version 3.x ?
cheers, Klaus
You can install alongside Terragen 3. Terragen 4 Beta is installed as a different program. However, file associations (such as loading Terragen by clicking on a .tgd file) will be with the most recently-installed program.
Matt
Quote from: Oshyan on July 01, 2016, 06:58:38 PM
the Mac version is coming soon!
Can't wait to try out the Mac version!
Thank You Planetside for allowing the opportunity to test the Terragen 4 Beta.
This is cruel! I was off all day Wednesday and Thursday and kept checking my email to see if there was an update about Terragen 4, and nothing, then tonight, my Monday, I am getting ready to go to work the overnight shift and I see the Open Beta notification, now my night is creeping by so slowly with anticipation. Now I am having a hard time not watching the clock! :-\
I can't wait to give it a try!
Thanks for making it available.
Just downloading this now - can't wait to play.
Thanks for the download.
It seems to work, except the essential "settings" , no setting box pops up?
Thanks for this. Not stable on my system though. 4 crashes in two hours!. Spends ages when making changes to parameters of older tgd's then stops working.
using i7 3930K
3.20 GHz
32GB DDR3
Tried again, now it seems to work.
Thank you for the beta.
I had a whole list of things to do this weekend; NO CHANCE ;D
Just tried to change the file association back to Terragen 3 after instaliing the beta and a .tgd file won't open from Windows 7 explorer
get the error message "the parameter is incorrect"
had to uninstall both the beta and Terragen 3 to get the file association back
is there a way to fix that?
Quote from: digitalguru on July 02, 2016, 01:18:05 PM
Just tried to change the file association back to Terragen 3 after instaliing the beta and a .tgd file won't open from Windows 7 explorer
get the error message "the parameter is incorrect"
had to uninstall both the beta and Terragen 3 to get the file association back
is there a way to fix that?
To associate files with TG3 I suggest uninstalling both, then installing the TG4 Beta first, then TG3. That might do it, but I haven't tried it myself.
Matt
Quote from: Kevin F on July 02, 2016, 05:51:15 AM
Thanks for this. Not stable on my system though. 4 crashes in two hours!. Spends ages when making changes to parameters of older tgd's then stops working.
using i7 3930K
3.20 GHz
32GB DDR3
Were you using the Realtime Preview (RTP) during these crashes? Or were there any other specific actions that might have caused it?
- Oshyan
QuoteTo associate files with TG3 I suggest uninstalling both, then installing the TG4 Beta first, then TG3. That might do it, but I haven't tried it myself.
thanks Matt, that works ok
Quote from: Oshyan on July 03, 2016, 03:22:32 AM
Quote from: Kevin F on July 02, 2016, 05:51:15 AM
Thanks for this. Not stable on my system though. 4 crashes in two hours!. Spends ages when making changes to parameters of older tgd's then stops working.
using i7 3930K
3.20 GHz
32GB DDR3
Were you using the Realtime Preview (RTP) during these crashes? Or were there any other specific actions that might have caused it?
- Oshyan
No, all were after making changes to either terrain displacements or shader displacement values/flavours.
Can't find anything definitive, but it looks as though us v2 users are going to be left out in the cold come upgrade time; hopefully that's not the case.
There is an upgrade path from TG2. At the moment you can do this by upgrading to TG3 and adding the 1 Year Maintenance Option (this will give you updates to 4.x for 1 year after first release date). There may be other routes too.
Matt
It seems that when i enter the product place tg4 cannot seen.
Please email us at support AT planetside.co.uk if you have any problems.
- Oshyan
So - this means there won't be a 32-bit Windows version of T4 anymore? :(
Quote from: Sun Gate on July 06, 2016, 09:35:01 AM
So - this means there won't be a 32-bit Windows version of T4 anymore? :(
Maybe. We haven't made a final decision on this yet. 32-bit Windows limits the amount of RAM that Terragen can use to only 2Gb or 3Gb, depending on Windows boot settings. Terragen 4 needs more RAM than Terragen 3 when working with objects (this enables us to render much faster), and the new clouds can also be quite RAM-hungry to get the best results. So we strongly recommend upgrading to 64-bit Windows.
May I ask what version of Windows you're using and how much RAM you have?
Matt
My computer is quite old. Core 2 Duo w. 4 Gb RAM. Therefore I'm still on Windows 7, 32 bit. I'm still quite content with that.
(BTW. Is there a chance Terragen 0.9 (classic) ever will be set free?)
Hi
Not sure why but TG4 Open Beta is not working on my computer.
Window 7 Pro (64 bits)
David
Quote from: kaedorg on July 08, 2016, 05:43:06 AM
Hi
Not sure why but TG4 Open Beta is not working on my computer.
Window 7 Pro (64 bits)
David
In what way is it not working? Did you install successfully? Does it load the UI, or not? Does it crash? Details please. :)
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on July 08, 2016, 03:56:40 PM
Quote from: kaedorg on July 08, 2016, 05:43:06 AM
Hi
Not sure why but TG4 Open Beta is not working on my computer.
Window 7 Pro (64 bits)
David
In what way is it not working? Did you install successfully? Does it load the UI, or not? Does it crash? Details please. :)
- Oshyan
It does not load the UI. So no crash. It stays as shown on the picture
David
[attachimg=1]
In order to get some more information, please run tgdcli.exe from the program folder. This will show a log of what Terragen is doing. I'm interested in what the last few lines of the log say when it gets stuck.
Matt
Quote from: Matt on July 10, 2016, 09:07:24 PM
In order to get some more information, please run tgdcli.exe from the program folder. This will show a log of what Terragen is doing. I'm interested in what the last few lines of the log say when it gets stuck.
Matt
Is tgdcli.exe supposed to create a log file ? Cant' find any and doing nothing too
David
Take a look at the installation folder of TG4 Beta - usually C:\Program Files\Planetside Software\Terragen 4 Beta\
There is a folder "Docs" which has a file named "win_command_line.txt" in it.
Maybe that helps to create a log file with tgdcli.exe.
cheers, Klaus
It does not create a log file automatically. You need to watch the commandline window that pops up. You can find ways to "pipe" the output of commandline programs to a text file, though I don't recall the specific instructions. It's a general thing though, not Terragen-specific, so should be easily Google-able.
- Oshyan
I installed TG4 on a windows 10, it works fine, but on windows 7 pro, nothing and tgdcli.exe neither. It even doesn't open a window. Nothing
David
Some impressions from my first weeks testing:
TG4 is really very fast on objects and reflections. Less but still increased speed on rendering terrains.
Nice new clouds and nice render effects. But besides we want to find and solve bugs... so unfortunately (although I really like TG4 already ;) ):
Depending on some things I don't understand TG4 is quite unstable. Can it be something with RAM management? The crashs are most impressive. I think 1/3 of them were real bluescreens with something about "memory dump".
Just a feeling, but I think, under Win7 it runs more stable than under Win10 (I had the same feeling for TG3.4)
A very important point for me is some missing buttons. I just made screenshots and put them in a PDF:
[attach=1]
These up and down arrows are most helpful for adjusting many things. I hope they come back.
Quote from: DocCharly65 on July 13, 2016, 06:25:37 AM
A very important point for me is some missing buttons. I just made screenshots and put them in a PDF:
[attach=1]
These up and down arrows are most helpful for adjusting many things. I hope they come back.
Agree with this. another example below showing missing controls
I think Matt said in another thread that the up and down arrows were temporary disabled.
Edit: Duh...it was in the "Terragen 4 Open Beta: Release Notes for 3.9.04.0" last line.
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21732.msg218516.html#msg218516
Thanks Kadri
Yes, definitely check out the release notes before reporting issues:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21732.0.html
But thank you all for your feedback so far, very helpful!
TG4 does use more memory than TG3. It should *not* cause blue screens, in fact it should not be *able* to cause blue screens *unless there is something else not quite right in your system*. That, at least, is my understanding. With Win 7 and even more so with Win 10, the protections in place for memory allocation, driver handling, etc. should really minimize blue screens for any software that is not doing anything hardcore and deep with the hardware (which TG is not).
So it's possible that the higher memory use of TG4 is exposing existing but previously unseen issues in your memory, as one example. I have actually seen myself on an older system a case where I had a fairly large amount of memory (for the time) at 16GB and I was seldom using all of it, and it turned out that some part of the memory that was always allocated as the higher blocks (i.e. closer to the 16GB limit) had some corruption issues. So to put it simply, I would see crashes but only when the memory was almost fully used. I was able to use a memory tester (memtest86+) to test all of my memory and find the issue and then get my memory replaced under warranty. So this is definitely something worth looking into.
If you have more detail on the message(s) that came with the blue screen that would also be helpful. It could be related graphics card driver issues, for another example. But it's hard to say without a bit more info.
Overall TG4 should not be causing blue screens. I don't know if anyone else has seen any but I certainly haven't in many months of testing. Plenty of crashes, yes, and this is somewhat to be expected while it is still in beta, but these crashes should not take down your entire system.
- Oshyan
Four days to go with TG4 Beta.
Can anyone of Planetside staff tell us what`s happening after that?
Another open beta period? End of Pre-sale offer? Just curious...
cheers, Klaus
Hi Klaus,
We are preparing a Beta 2 with an extended expiry date. This should be released very soon.
Matt
Thanks, Matt.
That is very gracious.
And of course nice to be able to test some more.
cheers, Klaus
Quote from: Matt on July 29, 2016, 09:44:56 PM
Hi Klaus,
We are preparing a Beta 2 with an extended expiry date. This should be released very soon.
Matt
That would be great! I am running on my last day TG4 Beta with an animation - I guess as long I don't restart the program it will keep working. But If my Win 10 forces the next restart after the next patch day it will be good to have an extended expiry date.
Are there any news about the "very soon" ? :)
When can we expect the Mac OS X beta? I'm chomping at the bit now cuz I got a new computer heheheh
Mac Beta should be released along with the Windows Beta in the "very soon" timeframe, i.e. within a day or two.
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on July 31, 2016, 06:01:12 PM
Mac Beta should be released along with the Windows Beta in the "very soon" timeframe, i.e. within a day or two.
- Oshyan
coolio!
The Mac beta is now out, along with Beta 2 for Windows with an extended expiration date. Enjoy!
http://terragen4.com/beta/
- Oshyan
Oshyan any difference from earlier installs?
I just installed the new versions (they had different install folders anyway) without uninstalling the older ones in the past.
The change log for Beta 2 is here (yes there are differences): http://terragen4.com/change-log-for-terragen-4-beta-2-3-9-07-0/
- Oshyan
It was more like can i install it over the old one or should i uninstall the old one first Oshyan :)
Just asking because of the Beta nature.
Edit: Never mind. As it is a beta, uninstalling would be the best probably. So i did.
I tried downloading the latest Beta but it saved as an HTML file. Does anyone know how to change it back to an executable file?
Issue has been resolved.
Quote from: AP on August 01, 2016, 04:08:15 AM
I tried downloading the latest Beta but it saved as an HTML file. Does anyone know how to change it back to an executable file?
I assume you have Windows.
If you use something like Totalcommander it is very easy.
Just click two times (but with a little pause between clicks) and then delete the " .html " part.
If you use the native Windows explorer use this method to see the file extension.
Then you can 2 click as above or right click and use the "rename" option.
http://www.file-extensions.org/article/show-and-hide-file-extensions-in-windows-10
If you use a different Windows version just search for something like "changing hidden extensions in windows *whatever version you have* "
Yes, Windows 7. I used the "rename" option. That worked and the issue was resolved swiftly. This event was a bit odd because this never occurred before. Thank you very much. :)
:)
The installer before had not this problem. I had to change it too (Firefox).
I am using Firefox as well. The last Beta downloaded correctly for me, just not this time.
Thanks again for making Beta2 available to us.
cheers, Klaus
No problems with downloading or renaming here (Pale Moon browser).
I thought I install TG Beta2 into a different folder alongside TG Beta1.
Renamed the folder suggested by the installer to C:\Program Files\ Planetside Software\ Terragen 4 Beta2\
but the installer simply deleted/overwrote the previous C:\Program Files\ Planetside Software\ Terragen 4 Beta\ folder of Beta1.
I guess that is by design to avoid any conflicts between versions.
cheers, Klaus
The latter is a bit weird indeed. I tried installing the public beta alongside the private (alpha tester's) beta for testing purposes only, and made a new folder (and also chose the right folder!), but it didn't work as expected and overwrote my private (alpha) beta in the other folder. When trying to reinstall the private (alpha) beta alongside the public, in yet another handmade folder, I couldn't as a newer file was found. So, no public beta testing for me. You guys are a step ahead of me now :P
The TG4 Betas for Windows do not allow you to install multiple versions of the Beta. It is technically possible to work around this by copying files to a different folder before installing the new version, but you will confuse the update checker by doing that, so I recommend you don't do that.
Matt
I just downloaded the new Beta version.
The previous one didn't work on my windows 7 pro, but the new one works perfectly.
Just wanted to let you know it. And thanks again for your great and amazing job ;-)
David
Quote from: Oshyan on August 01, 2016, 02:25:03 AM
The Mac beta is now out, along with Beta 2 for Windows with an extended expiration date. Enjoy!
http://terragen4.com/beta/ (http://terragen4.com/beta/)
- Oshyan
:D
Thank you very much for the Mac version.
I do not know if the other Mac user have this problem but I just realized that I can not save an image in .exr. TG4 leaves without drastically. The picture .exr is totally black. The backup TIFF seems OK.
Quote from: Oshyan on August 01, 2016, 02:25:03 AM
The Mac beta is now out, along with Beta 2 for Windows with an extended expiration date. Enjoy!
http://terragen4.com/beta/
- Oshyan
Thank you from a Mac user! Looking forward to taking it for a spin.
When I download the mac beta all I get is an html file?
Quote from: Clay on August 02, 2016, 05:09:53 PM
When I download the mac beta all I get is an html file?
Have a look above in this page. Try the same things but for a Mac instead of Windows..
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21705.msg220271.html#msg220271
If the filename ends with ".dmg.html" Just highlight the filename and delete the .html. You should be left with a .dmg that you can open and install. Worked fine here.
HA! Sorry I wan't paying attention, sheesh thanks for a knock in the head:-)
So I guess the decision is final? No 32-bit Windows version? Pity! :(
Sorry - I completely lost the overview but I hope I post at the right place here:
Are there any news about the next version? 6 days remaining for me... ;)
I don't know if you publish another open beta or versions for customers or already release versions.
My resume of the actual beta is quite positive - only some smaller things...
Positive:
Still very fast rendering - especially on obj-models
V 03.09.07 runs much more stable on all MS Windows OS so far (a bit more stable on Win7 than Win10)
Models are rendered ok now.
To be discussed if it's TG4-problems or operating errors by myself (I don't want to declare everything I don't understand as a bug... ;) )
Clouds don't follow moving planets
Independent which settings I change - planet translate or move textures / clouds move textures
They only move if I manually switch OFF "translate textures with planet" and then switch ON again in each frame.
Sunlight (or other light source) near a cloud created in TG4 causes flickering in animations. It gets better the more you change POV away from the light source. Changes of GI settings seem not to fix this.
If I want to edit "Y" animations (keyframes/curves) I MUST use the "Fit to curve button" to fit the curve to the window size.
[attachimg=1]
When I use my old "doubleclick" on the "Y", TG4 immediately freezes and must be restarted. On Windows10 PCs I even had one or two times that I had to coldstart the PC, because even mouse and keyboard were blocked. On Win 7 I didn't have this effect - restarting TG4 and it was ok again.
[attachimg=2]
This seems to happen with all animation curves which have x, y and z variables and only happens when doubleclicking the Y-curve
Thanks for the feedback. We are planning the next release to be the final, very soon!
The issue of clouds not following the planet may be an old one, but regardless we should resolve it. We'll try to reproduce.
Flickering in new clouds needs to be solved with the Animation-specific GI settings in the Cloud GI tab of the GI settings (new in TG4).
The Y animation editing issue is definitely something to check out.
Thanks again!
- Oshyan
Here's something I did which I can't fix :)
I imported an OBJ, navigated deep into the parts shader, copied the parts shaders nodes and pasted them in the top level. ( I wanted them there to instance to other obj's easily.)
I can delete the Default shaders but not the grey Object parts.
Glenn
Parts Shaders can't be used this way. You can't copy/paste them easily, only the shaders *attached* to them. I would suggest starting over and not attempting to do this as it's not an intended capability at present. This is because the Parts Shaders key off of UV coordinates that are specific to each object file.
- Oshyan
Quote from: DocCharly65 on August 25, 2016, 10:50:19 AM
When I use my old "doubleclick" on the "Y", TG4 immediately freezes and must be restarted. On Windows10 PCs I even had one or two times that I had to coldstart the PC, because even mouse and keyboard were blocked. On Win 7 I didn't have this effect - restarting TG4 and it was ok again.
Does this happen on several different computers? Can you share the TGD with us to reproduce it? We have not been able to recreate it ourselves.
Thanks,
Oshyan
Still, maybe not recommended, but it sure works, and can be handy sometimes. Deleting the red parts shaders can't be done, deleting the grey object parts further within can be done after ctrl+D them and select both, then delete.
I added a transform shader, but isn't necesssary, the null is.
Btw, Oshyan; I'm on your tail 8) ;D
Quote from: Oshyan on September 06, 2016, 02:16:44 AM
Does this happen on several different computers? Can you share the TGD with us to reproduce it? We have not been able to recreate it ourselves.
Thanks,
Oshyan
Good morning :)
First thanks for the License Key. It came an hour ago.
I tried this procedure and reproducing worked immediately:
[attach=1]
I had this behavior on a
Intel core duo E8500 with ATI Radeon HD 4600
Acer X3300 (AMD Phenom 4-core) with Radeon 6570
Intel core i7 4770 with Geforce 750 TI
Intel core i7 4??? with 2x Geforce 7xx SLI (I don't have the details in the head at the moment)
I'm uploading a gathered zip into my cloud at the moment and send you a pm when ready.
Thanks, we'll take a look.
- Oshyan
@Oshyan:
I cannot reach Planetside atm. My email to support@pla...uk got rejected and the contactform gives an error on sending (Opera 40.x browser)
So I ask here:
- is it definitive that there will be NO 32-bit Windows version of Terragen 4?
A reply is much appreciated!
Hi Sun Gate,
We will make a final decision on this soon. However, it's unlikely that we will be able to support 32 bit Windows for much longer. If we can't, will you be able to upgrade to 64 bit Windows or are you definitely stuck on 32 bit? And which version are you using (e.g. XP, Vista, Windows 7)? We are now running into problems even supporting XP and Vista, which we are trying to work around but might not be successful.
Matt
Hi, when will the view preview in separate window be implemented. I'm desperate to use two monitors again!
Quote from: Matt on October 01, 2016, 03:16:45 AM
Hi Sun Gate,
We will make a final decision on this soon. However, it's unlikely that we will be able to support 32 bit Windows for much longer. If we can't, will you be able to upgrade to 64 bit Windows or are you definitely stuck on 32 bit? And which version are you using (e.g. XP, Vista, Windows 7)? We are now running into problems even supporting XP and Vista, which we are trying to work around but might not be successful.
Matt
I have a Core 2 Duo w. 4 Gb RAM. Therefore I'm still on Windows 7, 32 bit.
I'm still quite content with that. :)
I'm pretty sure all the Core 2 CPUs supported 64 bit...
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on October 01, 2016, 08:52:43 PM
I'm pretty sure all the Core 2 CPUs supported 64 bit...
- Oshyan
Maybe, but I think the mobo only supports up to 4 Gb. So there's no point to that.
Actually there is. Windows 32 bit only supports up to 3GB of RAM per application, and that is only if a special bootup "switch" is enabled. If it's not, only 2GB per application are allowed, which is severely limiting. You can maximize use of your available memory with a 64 bit OS, even if you only have 4GB.
- Oshyan
Quote from: mhaze on October 01, 2016, 12:31:53 PM
Hi, when will the view preview in separate window be implemented. I'm desperate to use two monitors again!
We'll be bringing that back in a future update, but we don't have a specific release date for it. I believe it has been made more challenging by the introduction of the RTP.
- Oshyan