‘EasyCloud^ ’ presets quickly get you to making a
range of very realistic clouds, all using internal
computations that are hard to make from
scratch. The Ray-Traced Preview updates very
fast when you change cloud seeds, or the cloud
coverage. So it’s perfect for users who aim for
photographic realism, especially where clouds
are a major part of the work. It will also give a
fast preview of the foliage, and what is
important to me is to be able to check the
procedural colour adjustments I made on objects
like trees or buildings. Another feature, though
around since Terragen 3, is the possibility to edit
populations of objects; move or delete instances.
I couldn’t do without anymore.
I know Terragen is a bit hard to grasp at first,
but once you understand the basic effects of the
nodes, there is a world to explore and develop. I
am really looking forward to whatever is up
Planetside’s sleeve...
DAL: Is there anything else that version 4 of
Terragen help you to do now, that was either
difficult or impossible before?UG: Ah, well now one other thing that’s much
easier to accomplish now is God Rays.
DAL: Right — streams of sunlight shafting
through breaks in the cloud, or bright light
streaming through a lattice window.UG: Right. With Ray-Traced Preview on you can
just shift the sun or clouds and immediately see
the rays appear. You can manoeuvre cloud
shadows around to where you want them.
But some of the features that made my life
much easier have been implemented before V4.
I remember making a city, and having to adjust
each house while in box view, even without the
manoeuvring handles that have been added
since. It took ages to get them lined up nicely,
while you can see objects in great detail now,