For Terragen

Table of Contents
• Download / Installation Instructions
• History
• Features
• Tutorials/Links
• Sample Images/Animations

DOWNLOAD / INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS SOPack (~145 kb) Plugin pack for Terragen v0.9.19+ (See the History list below to check for updates.) This also requires v1.2.7+ of Jo Meder's TGPGUILib. SOPack (~156 kb) Plugin pack for Terragen v0.8+. This old version does not require TGPGUILib. If the version above does not work, Win98/ME users may need to use this version. Utilities HDR2EXR Convert the HDR images generated by HDR Output to the ILM OpenEXR format. SOPack is available for personal, non-commercial use only. Installation: Unpack the contents of the SOPack ZIP to one of three directories: The directory where the Terragen executable resides (usually C:\Program Files\Terragen\). In this case, the complete path to sopack.tgp would be C:\Program Files\Terragen\sopack.tgp In a new subdirectory called Plugins inside Terragen's directory. The complete path to the plugin file could then be C:\Program Files\Terragen\Plugins\sopack.tgp In a new subdirectory called TGPlugins inside the main Program Files directory. For instance, C:\Program Files\TGPlugins\sopack.tgp

HISTORY

• Aug 6, 2006 Added HDR2EXR.
• May 1, 2005 Added link to StrataGen: software to design strata for the Strata Overlay module.
• Aug 22, 2004 - Minor revision to SOPack. AfterGlow now loads and saves settings, and Image Overlay and Strata Overlay have friendlier behavior when they can't locate the BMP file(s) referenced in a previously-saved World/Surface file.
• Aug 5, 2004 - Added a link to Jo Meder's SOverlay. This plugin adds image overlay and image-based surface distribution capabilities to the Mac version of Terragen.
• July 28, 2004 - Added a link to Jo Meder's HighDynamic. This plugin adds HDRI output capability to the Mac version of Terragen.
• Feb 17, 2004 - AfterGlow effect added.
• Feb 3, 2004 - SOPack has moved to a new web server!
  
  

FEATURES

Plugin List (as of February 2004)
• Flip Vertical
• Statistical Filter
• RainDrops
• Water Opacity
• Terrain Morph TerMorph is also available as a standalone utility with similar functionality. This command-line program simply linearly interpolates between two existing terrain files, producing a third terrain file. (It has no built-in animation capability.)
  
  
• Camera Effects
  • RenderCheat
  • Stereo Snapshot
  • SceneInfo
  • AfterGlow
  • Black & White
  • Sepia
  • Blur
  • HDR Output
  • TIF Output
• Terrain Texture Overlays
  • Image Overlay
  • Contour Overlay
  • Strata Overlay
  • Grid Overlay

TUTORIALS/LINKS

NON-ENGLISH PAGES
• Japanese translation of this webpage . (May not be up-to-date.)
  
  
• German tutorial (see under "Plugins").
  
  
• French overlay tutorial. (English Translation)
  
  OVERLAYS & STRATA
• SOverlay The Image Overlay plugin for the Macintosh version of Terragen.
• StrataGen Software to design strata for the SO Strata module.
• Eric's Terragen Tutorials Tutorials from a very experienced Terragen and SOPack user. Includes basic and advanced use of overlays, masks, and strata.
• 3D-Palace Has long, detailed video tutorials on Terragen, SOPack, and creating animations in Terragen with CamPath and related utilities.
• WorldMachine & SOPack Tutorial on the use of WorldMachine in conjunction with SOPack to illustrate terrains with various erosion features (deposits and runoff from fluvial erosion, thermal erosion, etc). WorldMachine is a unique and very powerful shareware heightfield generation system. The image to the right illustrates overlaying a deposition map (in blue for contrast) on a standard Terragen terrain.
  
• Surface Mapping for Professionals Covers the use of SOPack for overlays, distribution, and strata.
• C-Wied's Graphic Arts How to use strata, texture overlays, and masks together.
• Terragen Plugin Manual Collection Tutorials in Japanese and English on WaterWorks, SOPack, and Firmament. SOPack tutorial includes a good description of how overlays are placed and tiled.
• Terrabill A collection of tutorials by various authors; topics include masks, transparent (+reflective) water, and using strata and overlays with SOPack.
• Farmland Tutorial Thorough, well-illustrated tutorial. Designed for creating farmland, but it also covers using overlays as masks and using surface distribution overlays in combination with RGB texture overlays.
• Making Nice Snowtops Snowy peaks using SOPack and texture overlays.
• Motocross Madness 2 Tracks I Create tracks for Motocross Madness 2 using Terragen and SOPack. Ride around your Terragen scenes in a motorcycle--complete with vegetation. (Also, one for creating skies.)
• Motocross Madness 2 Tracks II Similar to the above, but goes into more detail about how SOPack works with overlays, complete with diagrams showing where to access SOPack's features inside Terragen. Very useful even for non-MCM2 fans.
• Terragen/Satellite Image Overlay Test From a site at JPL.
  
  TEXTURES
• Varian.Net Includes a collection of natural texture images for use with SOPack overlays.
• C-Wied's Graphic Arts Another collection of natural textures.
• Texture Resources A collection of links to texture collections, some suitable for use with Terragen.
  
  HDRI (High Dynamic Resolution Imaging)
• HighDynamic The HDRI output plugin for the Macintosh version of Terragen.
• Rendermania Simon Bunker's site, including instructions for using HDR images with popular renderers like BMRT, 3DS Max, and Lightwave.
• HDR Shop View "HDR Data Output"'s files and convert them to BMP images. Among other things, this allows you to set the exposure visually.
• Frogpage II Other pages on my site have various utilities for using HDR images for global illumination and panoramic maps.
• HDR Environment Tutorial (German) Step-by-step tutorial on creating panoramic HDR environments from Terragen scenes.
• Article (German) Discusses the basics behind HDRI imaging, why it's used, some sample images, and useful links. (English translation.)
  
  TERRAIN MORPH
• Thomas Creek - Earthquake Tutorial How to create simple earthquake-style animations using the Terrain Morph plugin.
  
  MISCELLANEOUS
• TerraTweak An excellent utility for changing and animating the "hidden" values stored inside Terragen World files, including SOPack settings.
• Water Transparency Tutorial How to tweak the water transparency to affect the appearance of a scene.
• Die deutsche Terragen-Homepage Images illustrating various effects--filters, water transparency, etc--and a fairly long tutorial in German. (Can be translated using Babelfish.)
• C-Wied's Graphic Arts How to create masks (land, surf, water, clouds, etc) out of Terragen images for compositing purposes; how to create walls and structures; how to work with transparent water (somewhat obsolete).

IMAGES/ANIMATIONS

• Terrain Morph terrain effect (all animations in Bink format):
  
  Fluvial Erosion Starts with an uneroded fractal-generated terrain and interpolates it to an eroded version of the same terrain. (Erosion handled by a separate program.)
  Mt. St. Helen's Morphing from the "before" to "after" data. Notice how the texture map around the crater changes as the terrain does.
  Pyramid Shows usage of a camera control script (generated with CamPath) and the morph plugin. Pyramid slowly forms as camera revolves around it.
  
  
  
• HDR Data Output
  
  

  A single rendering was used to create all these images; the exposure was modified in another program.

  
  
• Image Overlay (from a low-resolution, older version):
  
  
  

  Contour Overlay	Strata Overlay
  Image Overlay (Image of underwater caustics produced with the Caustics Generator. Click on image for larger version.)

  
  
• Photo Effect filters:
  

  Unfiltered  Sepia filter  Black & White filter

  Matrix blur  Line art (+negative)  Matrix emboss

  AfterGlow: Before (above) and after (below) effect was applied. Settings were tweaked using RenderCheat.

  
  
  
• Miscellaneous larger images can be found on the Topography Page.
  
  
• (Terrain Accessory and other plugin images not shown.)

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This page created and maintained by Sean O'Malley. All text and images copyright ©2003-2004, Sean O'Malley, unless otherwise noted.