Terragen

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A highly reflective lake, showing off the possibility for photorealistic renders

Julia island. It can be combined with other tools (here land-mapping as a Julia set)

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 such as Joan Fontcuberta ("Orogenesis" series)^[1] and 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.

[edit] See also

• VistaPro

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Terragen

• Terragen website
• Terragen at the Open Directory Project