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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. It has also been used by numerous artists like Joan Fontcuberta or the French Photographer Mathieu Bernard-Reymond ("Vous êtes ici" series, and "Pôle" series).

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.

Terragen 2

Terragen 2, with vastly enhanced features, was slated for its first public release at the end of January 2006. As of January 28, 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 was finally released on December 15, 2006. .

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

Engen, a proprietary version of Terragen 2 by Digital Domain, was used to render Earth terrain scenes in the film Stealth and planetary scenes in Star Trek: Nemesis.

References

1. M. Larsson, M. Wrenninge, and D. Roble, "Inter-frame caching for high quality terrain rendering", ACM SIGGRAPH 2004 Sketches, p. 9 (2004); M. Fairclough, M. Wrenninge, and M. Larsson, "Robust rendering of high resolution terrain", ACM SIGGRAPH 2004 Sketches, p. 10 (2004).
2. http://oshyan.ashundar.com/galleries/index.php?cat=12

External links

• Official
  • Official homepage of Terragen
  • Information page about Terragen 2
  • Terragen ™ 2 Technology Preview - the first public release.

• Resources
  • Planetside's official resources page listing plugins, terrain editors, etc.
  • Terrasource - Large repository of links to Terragen-related material including plugins, terrain editors, DEM data, tutorials, etc.
  • designPATHS - Tutorial site featuring many Terragen 2 tutorials.

• Communities
  • Ashundar - Terragen community featuring galleries, forums, file downloads, tutorials, contests, etc.
  • TerraNuts - General graphics community focusing on landscapes, including a section on Terragen; features forums, galleries, tutorials, etc.
  • 3D Commune - Large graphics community with Terragen-specific galleries and forums.
  • Renderosity - Very active graphics community with Terragen-specific galleries, forums and downloads
  • Google Terragen Group - Terragen user group where people share their work, web pages, and post questions and answers about Terragen.

• Artists
  • Luc Bianco One of Terragen's beta tester.

• 3D graphics software
• Freeware