Terragen

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Desert style landscape early morning

Terragen is a freeware scenery generator program for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh developed and published by Planetside Software. It can be used to create renderings and animations of landscapes.

It is popular among amateur artists, which can be attributed to it being freeware, its intuitive interface, and its capability to create photorealistic landscapes when used skillfully. It can also use DEM files, and other graphic surface maps for rendering.

A commercial version of the software is also available and is capable of creating larger terrains, renders with higher image resolution, larger terrain files, and better post-render anti-aliasing than the freeware version. A Terragen image appeared on the April 16, 2001 cover of Newsweek, and Terragen was used for animations in Brandy Norwood's "What About Us?" music video.

The terrain is generated from a two-dimensional heightmap. The program contains facilities for importing and exporting heightmaps to images, for use in other programs.

Terragen can also be used to create skyboxes for 3D video games. The game Serious Sam is a prime example.

[edit] Terragen 2

Terragen 2, with vastly enhanced features, was slated for its first public release at the end of January 2006. As of January 28th, 2006, Matt Fairclough reported that the TG2 Technology Preview would not be released at the end of January as had been originally estimated. The Preview is now planned for release on December 15th, 2006. [1].

The Terragen 2 feature list includes:

Procedural terrains of "infinite" detail
Displacement mapping
Full object support for vegetation, etc.
Object instancing support, allowing the rendering of "millions" of trees, boulders, etc.
A planetary atmosphere and scene model
Capability to have multiple planets in a scene
Volumetric clouds
Motion blur

[edit] See also

Bryce, a 3D renderer optimised for scenery generation;
GenesisIV, a landscape database and 3D renderer orientated towards GIS and Educational use;
Landscape Studio, a Java-based heightmap generator;
MojoWorld Generator, which generates entire planets;
Vista Pro, an early scenery generator for the Amiga platform;
Vue, a professional 3D environment generator.