Hello again,
More on the subject of where I've been, and what's happening with Terragen.
Since my message on Thursday, some of you had got the impression that I'd had some personal tragedy or something. Thanks for your concern, but luckily that is not the case. If I came across as upset or deflated, it was because of the news I was bringing.
Here's what's happened. On February 7th I started work for Digital Domain (a visual effects company based in Los Angeles). It's a full time job, and I have certain contractual obligations which limit what I'm allowed to do with the public version of Terragen.
What does this mean for the future of Terragen? Well, I hate to say it, but the development of the public version will have to be put on hold while I'm at Digital Domain. This is most likely going to be until at least February 2001, but perhaps longer, depending on how things go this year at DD (and how much they'll pay me next year ;)
I'm also sorry to say that the PDK (Plugin Development Kit) will probably not be finished any time soon. There are only a small number of things I need to resolve in order to make it releasable (although not complete by any definition), but I simply do not have the time to work on it just yet. There is also the issue of my contract with DD, which may or may not prevent me from implementing these changes. It's an issue I need to look into.
It's not all bad though. I'm gaining a lot of incredibly useful knowledge of visual effects and visual effects software. Plus, some of my work here involves improving Terragen: expanding existing features and adding new ones, and increasing integration with other software used by the industry. If and when the time comes to leave DD, I get to keep much of this, which means so do you. If not, the worst case scenario is that I will have to rewrite those features, but the knowledge I gain while I'm here will be invaluable. While I've been here I've already added one particularly amazing enhancement to TG which I'd love to be able to share with you, but I'm probably not allowed to give away any details. The point I'm making is this: development of the public TG may be on hold for a while, but my personal development isn't. At some point in the future that's going to benefit the Terragen community, hopefully in a big way.
I feel I should also try to justify personally why I'm doing this, apart from the reasons given above. I needed a change, if only for a year or two. Sitting at home writing Terragen all day and night had taken over my life, and I wasn't getting out much any more. Having finished college, my life-sucking obsession with Terragen was turning me into someone who was finding it more and more difficult to step outside of my front door. I was stagnating. Taking the leap, starting a new life on a different continent and moving into to friendly working atmosphere soon helped with that :) Letting my personal limitations beat me into being a hermit wasn't the direction I wanted to be headed any longer.
It's not going to last forever, and it might not even last a long time either. But my current priority is Digital Domain. John McLusky is doing a great job with tech support, site maintainance, etc. and I hope that will continue until we have solid plans for the future. One day, Terragen, or it successor, is going to be far more powerful, flexible and easy to use than it is now. And it's going to be so much better for the fact that I'm spending this time doing something slightly different and more varied than the work I've done so far. To quote a well-worn cliche, things can only get better.
So, aside from regret I feel for letting down the TG community, this is good news for me, and it doesn't have to be bad news for Terragen in thelong run. I'll be more active on the list than I have been over the last few months. I appreciate your support and understanding, and I hope you'll all continue to show me things that I didn't realise Terragen was capable of :)
Sincerely,
Matt.
