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Friday, December 20th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerPlanetside Software releases Terragen 4.8html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Planetside Software has released Terragen 4.8, the latest stable version of its environment generation tool for VFX, motion graphics and general CG work.The update adds support for the Sky Paint tools in Terragen Sky, Terragens companion app, the option to export heightfields as 16-bit TIFFs, and makes significant performance improvements.One of the first off-the-shelf tools for generating VFX-quality landscapesFirst released in the 2000s, Terragen is one of the original professional landscape-generation tools, having been used at VFX studios including ILM, Digital Domain and MPC.As well as terrain itself, it can generate surface water features, atmospheric and weather effects, clouds and skies, and is capable of generating and rendering very large environments.It continues to be updated steadily, typically receiving an update per year.Terragen 4.8: better integration for Terragen Sky and shading of deforming objectsThis years update, Terragen 4.8, introduces support for the new Sky Paint tools in Terragen Sky, Planetsides dedicated software for creating skies, free in early access to Terragen users.Artists can now paint clouds inside Terragen Sky, then export the project to Terragen for further editing or rendering.The update also introduces a new sticky world space for shading deforming objects, making it possible to use shaders on animated world space objects without textures sliding.It is supported on the Transform Input Shader, Transform Merge Shader and Distance Shader.In addition, the real-time 3D Preview now respects the shadow-casting settings of light sources.Performance improvements to rendering and heightfield generationUnder the hood, there are some significant performance improvements.The old maximum of 64 CPU threads per render has been removed, making it possible to take advantage of highly multi-core processors on Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, Linux and macOS.The Heightfield Erode operator has also been multithreaded, making calculation much faster, although unlike the old single-threaded mode still available for backwards-compatibility output is not deterministic, generating slightly different results each time it is run.In addition, interactivity in scenes with multiple cloud layers and performance of animated deformations have both been improved.Export heightfields as 16-bit TIFFs for use in game enginesFor pipeline integration, Terragen can now export heightfields as 16-bit TIFF and RAW files as well as 32-bit EXRs.The 16-bit files are intended for use in game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine, rather than offline rendering.Pricing and availabilityTerragen 4.8 is available for Windows, Linux and macOS. There are five price tiers, based on how much you earn as an individual artist or studio, ranging from earnings of $50,000/year to over $1 billion/year.Perpetual licences cost between $199 and $980, depending on which tier you fall in, while subscriptions cost between $10/month and $56/month, or $96/year and $492/year.Read an overview of the new features in Terragen 4.8 on Planetside Softwares blogRead a full list of new features in Terragen 4.8 in the online release notesHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsTerragen Sky now lets you paint clouds into the sky directlyCheck out the neat new Sky Paint tools in the December 2024 update to the sky-creation tool for VFX, visualization and games work.Friday, December 20th, 2024Planetside Software releases Terragen 4.8Environment generation software gets highly multithreaded rendering, plus heightfield export to 16-bit TIFFs for Unity and Unreal Engine.Friday, December 20th, 2024Photoshop users can now create filters in Substance 3D DesignerCurrent beta build of the image-editing app lets users create and import custom image-stylization filters as Substance 3D .sbsar files.Thursday, December 19th, 2024Pixar releases RenderMan 26.3Check out the new features in the production renderer, including tiled denoising, and support for the new versions of Maya and Houdini.Thursday, December 19th, 2024Create game characters with CC Auto Setup for 3ds Max and V-Ray[Sponsored] Discover how Reallusion's free plugin streamlines the transfer of characters from Character Creator 4 to 3ds Max.Wednesday, December 18th, 2024Leopoly releases Shapelab 2025 and Shapelab LiteCheck out the new features in the sculpting tool for VR and desktop systems, and its new lower-cost edition for Meta Quest 3 headsets.Wednesday, December 18th, 2024More NewsAdobe releases Photoshop 26.2Check out Blender's experimental anime rendering buildsCell Fluids 2.0 for Blender is outUnigine 2.19.1 can now import and export USD filesBoris FX releases Mocha Pro 2025Master Designing Sci-Fi Props for FilmAdobe releases Substance 3D Stager 3.1 in betaNekki releases Cascadeur Mobile 1.2ukasz Czy releases UVPackmaster 3 for MayaBlender add-on ClayPencil turns 2D animation into 3D 'claymation'Foundry releases Nuke 16.0 in betaChaos releases V-Ray 7 for SketchUpOlder Posts