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Terragen™ 2 TG2 Overview     TG2 Image Gallery     TG2 FAQ     TG2 Tech Preview Technology Preview available for Download now! 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. Terragen 2 features an advanced hybrid micropolygon renderer with powerful multi-angle displacement capabilities. It has a versatile procedural engine that can be utilised to apply subpixel-level detail to almost any aspect of a scene. Terragen 2 is capable of rendering billions of polygons in a single scene. 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 At the heart of TG2 is a cutting-edge 3D renderer. It is capable of rendering surfaces with extreme procedural displacement and produces images and animations with production quality anti-aliasing and motion blur. Procedural, image-based or object-based shaders can build complex surfaces from simple objects, relying on the renderer's adaptive subdivision algorithms to dynamically adjust to extreme stretching and creasing. TG2 blurs the distinction between geometry and displacement that is common in most high end production renderers, making it an ideal solution for highly complex natural objects such as terrain. While the emphasis is on rendering procedural surfaces with extremely high detail, image-based textures and imported geometry are also supported, and the resulting surfaces can be exported at various resolutions in popular 3D object formats. With Terragen 2 you utilize procedural terrains of unlimited size and detail, heightfield based terrains or a combination of the two. Multiple heightfields and procedurals may be used and mixed freely in a single scene. Heightfield based terrains also greatly benefit from added procedural detail, which can be automatically generated by TG2. Terrain files from Terragen v0.9 are directly supported along with native MOLA data import and other DEM and terrain formats.  Procedural Terrain Heightfield (DEM) Terrain 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. Realtime 3D Preview Terragen 2  supports vegetation, using 3D models from a variety of sources, including XfrogPlants models from greenworks/xfrog, inc. A Populator system allows you to easily place millions of instances of plant models in a scene, with variations such as rotation and scale to vary their appearance. The Populator can also be used with other arbitrary 3D objects imported from supported file formats. Achieve never-before-seen levels of realism by covering your hills with grass and trees, filling your stream beds with rocks, and much more. The possibilities are now truly limitless. Vegetation TG2 features  a powerful and flexible graphical node/graph editor which is used for creating networks of shaders and scene elements. Terragen features a number of high level shaders which create more complex scene elements, such as clouds or rocks, as well as a low level function node system which allows you to create shaders from "first principles", using functions and methods that will be familiar to shader writers. The node editor can be used to unlock the full power of the TG2 rendering engine. Function Node Network Our long term development is now concentrated on Terragen 2, using the TG2 renderer and plugin architecture. The bulk of the work is done, and our next step is to combine the accessibility of Terragen's current user interface and fast, integrated atmosphere system with the underlying power and flexibility of TG2. Terragen 2 Release Schedule In 2006 the first Terragen 2 Technology Preview was released, giving users hands-on access to the software. Development will continue towards a final release of Terragen 2 for Windows and Mac. We intend to provide multiple version of Terragen 2 to cater to the needs of different users, from hobbyists to professional artists, animators and visualisation experts. We also hope to continue the tradition of releasing a free non-commercial edition that is more than just a demo. Terragen v0.9 We will continue to support TG v0.9 until TG2 is available. Our main development focus now is definitely TG2 however, and we do not plan to add any significant new functionality to TG v0.9. We will certainly still address crashing issues and the like, and we have not ruled out future releases of TG v0.9. Upgrade path Registered users of v0.7 through to v0.9 who purchased before December 15th, 2006 will receive a discount of $99 (USD) towards Terragen 2 when it is available. Current purchasers of TG 0.9 will receive an $80 discount on a purchase of Terragen 2. More about TG2 TG2 Image Gallery Terragen 2 Technology Preview Terragen 2 FAQ Pre-Purchase Terragen 2