A freeware Windows landscape creator, along the lines of Bryce. Development is spotty, but some amazing results.

http://www.planetside.co.uk/
http://www.terrasource.net/
and the main site which hasn't been updated in some time:
http://www.terragen.de/

Hard to believe something like that is actually free. Cool.
DJ

I installed it and I'm amazed at what you can do with it. Incredible!!! Not only that but there are plug ins to add to it also and lots of tutorials to teach you how to use it. I just played around with it about 10 minutes and was generating realistic looking scenes. Thanks for the cool link Doug.
DJ

Examples. We need examples :)

OOPs I didn't save any of them. Just wanted to see a few different scenes. I will see what I can do. :)
DJ

I'd like to see some too. Thanks.

Ed

OK I built 3 pretty decent images. They are the basic daylight type images because I'm not good enough to do the sunsets yet. Did a few I wasn't happy with. This program is different than Photoshop in that you never work on a large open file. Everything is done in the Rendering Control preview window. If you change a setting on any other control window, you have to regenerate your preview in the Rendering Control window. If you want a larger view it will build one but it takes time to do that. The more you add to the preview the more time it will take to generate. It's really kind of fun to just play with. And for those of you who want realistic clouds this one makes some of the most realistic ones I've seen. Here's my first image.
DJ

Here's the second image. Light source was purely accidental. Actually everything was purely accidental. :D
DJ

On this image, I changed the camera point of view and added water.
DJ

DOUG:

Thanks for the tidbit. This looks like it has great promise for generating some pretty incredible backgrounds.

- - - -

DJ:

A+ on the pronto examples. As we've discussed via PM, "pictures" worth 1,000's of words. Appreciate your sharing efforts once again.

~DannyR~

Hey, I finally got the colors of the sky right to make a neat sunset. Check it out.

Danny, thanks. As you can see, I have been having fun. :)
DJ

WowDeb! It didn't take you long to come up with some decent stuff. Thanks for posting. They look good. Thumbs up on that.

Ed

DJ -- Wow!! You learn fast! Nice images -- I'll have to take a look at the software.

Doug -- appreciate the sharing.

Deb, those are really neat. Thanks Doug for pointing out thes software...

I don't think I'd really use the "surface of the moon" looking mountains and plains, but those sky and cloud scapes could be a quick way to many photographs with boring blue skies. At least at screen resolution the clouds look very realistic...


--tsk

Whoops! Deb, I just read my own post, and I think I had better work on my phraseology.... I think the landscapes you produced are really great, and the results are remarkable for the rendering and shapes.

My "surface of the moon" remark was only meant to describe the land surfaces as rendered by the program. They are rather barren looking. While an artist might see that as only a starting point, I was more impressed by the skies that as a photographer I could think of immediate uses for...

Didn't mean to sound so negative...

--tks

Gee I couldn't even get my own initials right in that post...

tsk, tsk :)

Terragen
A freeware Windows landscape creator, along the lines of Bryce. Development is spotty, but some amazing results.

Ooh Terragen, I forgot that on my list in the Freeware (http://retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2518) thread. I love that program, and also Bryce (I have the full version of Bryce 3 from a magazine CD a while ago), and I've seen people make amazing things from those programs. (especially Jonathan Allen's "low tides" (http://www.j.b.allen.btinternet.co.uk/galleries/lowgal/lowgal1.html) images made in Bryce - they look amazingly realistic)

DJ - those are some great first attempts in Terragen! :thumbsup:

- David :)

Originally posted by Doug Nelson
Examples. We need examples :)
Check here: http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/images.shtml(these are incredible - I'd never guess they weren't photos if I didn't already know)
and here: http://www.terragen.de/gallerylinks.htm (links to loads of galleries)
I'm going to mess around some more in terragen tonight and see if I come up with anything worth posting.

- David

Yeah, they're great, but it isn't the same as your examples :)

Deb, those are great. You are so talented.

Sharon

Thanks everyone but it's not as if I painted them myself. :D It was pretty much the basic settings on the program with a little dumb luck tweaking thrown in. I basically wanted to show what you could produce without much knowledge of the program.

Tim S
They can make terrains that are more lush but I can't at this time. So you are looking at the basic amateurs results from only using the program for about an hour. Check out the links David posted to see better versions than I can produce at this time. There are also plug ins you can get for adding trees and rocks etc.
As for the skys, they beat KPT 6 Sky Effects for reality, big time. I want to see if I can generate just the skys for future use in photos also. At anyrate you can't get beat the price. :)
DJ

ok, Doug wanted examples, so here's some of mine:

(I accidentally output the first one in low rez, so it doesn't look very good)

-David :)

# 2:

#3:

oops, the attachment didn't work for #2 I'll try it again

kind of off topic, but for anybody who's interested here's some examples of messing around in Bryce for about 15 minutes: (I didn't really spend any time on textures for the "island", I just put it in there and left it the way it was)

I like the way the first one worked out better (the sunset one), but I'll post this day time one anyway:

They all look great David. I love the sunset you got using Bryce. Is it easier or more difficult than Terragen?
DJ

Thanks DJ! There's a lot more in Bryce then there is in Terragen (terragen is just for landscapes, Bryce is a full 3D program) so it is a bit harder to learn, but I'd say its a lot more intuitive than Terragen to use. I really like working in Bryce, and you can get amazing results with not too much time and effort :)

- David

The biggest difference is the cost. Bryce costs around $300 for the full version. I guess I will stick with Terragen. :)
DJ

yup, its pretty expensive, I'm really lucky that I found the version of it on that magazine CD I got. but Terragen is still great, especially for things like making skys if you need to put in a new one in a photo retouching / manipulation you're doing since you can get the angle exactly right in 3D.

- David

Like Tim_S, that's what I was most impressed with. I have had several occasions to replace the sky and needed a good sky generator. I have KTP 6 with Sky effects but I don't think they are as realistic as Terragen.
DJ

I've been playing around a bit more with adding surface covering such as snow and grass. In the Landscape window there is something called Add Child. I thought that meant to stick some little kid in the scene. Yes, I'm rather dumb. :D Turns out, that's how you modify your terrain to a more lush appearance. So here is the first one. I added greens to the equasion creating a mossy grass appearance on my rock formations.
DJ

It's really just the start of trying to get some surface texture. Anyway, here is a sunset with a light dusting of snow on the rocks.
DJ

DJ -- In the Landscape window there is something called Add Child.

What pretty children you created! :)

Very nice, realistic effects.

It's funny CJ but you start to feel God like creating these things. :D They're all my little children. :D
DJ

those are great DJ! I especially like the second one. it looks like a photo.

- David :)

Thanks David. This program does generate amazingly realistic scenes. I love new toys, especially the free kind. :D
DJ

Finally downloaded this program and had a chance to use it...very cool! The landscapes do not look as "canned" as some 3d programs. Here is my first doodle...I made a few minor levels and saturation adjustments in photoshop.

It is possible to get some better looking terrains but it's really kind of complicated stuff. Also I think what you saw was generated by using various plugins that are available for it. We tried a few plug ins to it and my son has been helping me figure it out. You did great with the snow cover Greg. You and David are definately better at this stuff than I am. I will use it mostly for generating certain skys for photo work though and maybe eventually I will understand the terrain part better.
DJ

that looks great greg! I like the snow, and the shadows worked really well.

- David :)

Up til now, Terragen was only for PC, but about a week ago, a beta version for Mac (OS 9.x and OS X) was put out, so now all of you who refuse to use anything besides Mac can use this neat little program.
I've been playing around with Terragen again, so here's some new results:

- David :)

I found a cool program called World Machine (http://students.washington.edu/sschmitt/world/) that can create very nice heightfeilds, which can then be imported into terragen. that's what I used for this one:

- David :)