A brief tutorial to help you get started in creating landscapes in Terragen.
Firstly, it is important that your computer is in TrueColor mode (24 or 32 bit). If you computer is in 16 or 8 bit mode, saved images will be of low quality. This will not be an issue in future versions of Terragen. You can switch modes through the Display control panel.
Load up Terragen. Once the "Continue" button is available on the splash screen, press it. You will see two windows, one marked "Rendering Control" and the other marked "Landscape".
Click the button "Generate Terrain" on the "Landscape" window.
The default settings are fine for getting started, so press the "Generate Terrain" button. (for information about the individual settings, see The Terrain Dialog). A terrain will be created and the status will be shown on the two status bars. Once the terrain has finished being generated, the previews in the background are redrawn. If you are not happy with the result, press "Generate Terrain" again. When you are happy with the result (for this tutorial, it is best to have contrasting high (white) and low (black) areas to the terrain) press the Close button.
Left-click in a dark area of the
heightfield, and right-click in a lighter area so that we
are looking up a hill. If it helps you to visualize it
better, you can select the "Cols" option button
to view the terrain with the colour palette.
|
![]() |
On the "Render Control" window click the "Render Preview" button. Within around 10 seconds or less a preview will have been drawn, but without a sky (this will be dealt with in a moment. If there are any problems with the picture (for instance, having a small hill blocking the camera), reposition the camera and try again until the preview looks good.
Now click on the "Clouds" button on the button bar (4th one from the top). Click the "Add Layer" button to generate a cloud layer, and answer "Yes" to "do you wish to turn on sky rendering?". Close the Clouds window and render another preview.
If you are satisfied by the low-detail preview, increase the detail level to full, enter the resolution you wish to render and click the "Render" button - and wait for the results of your first render!
![]() render controls |
![]() landscape |
![]() water |
![]() clouds |
![]() atmosphere |
![]() lighting |
![]() image |
menu items - working
with files - faq - getting started - moonscapes - animations - post-processing
- index ©May, 1999 John McLusky |