Render Controls

image of rendering control

Render Preview: Renders a low-resolution image based on all the current settings. This is invaluable when calculating when an image "looks right".

Camera Position/Target Position: The position of the camera and target in landscape units. The camera looks from the camera position in a straight line to the target position. X indicates horizontal position, Y indicates vertical position, and Z indicates height. The line in the small Terrain view shows the line of sight, although there is no indication as to which end represents the camera.
The "Fixed Height above Surface" controls mean that when moving the camera or target, the height is always a fixed amount above the terrain or water at that position. If the Z value is altered manually, the Height Above Surface value is altered accordingly.

Image Size: Image size is (at present) limited to 1000 pixels in height, although there seems to be no reasonable limit in width of the image. This gives a maximum "standard" image size of 1280*960.

Render Image: Renders the image at the specified resolution. Once you have finished rendering, a box appears telling you how long the render took, and the number of quadrilaterals drawn.

Camera Properties

Camera/Target Position. Like on the Terrain Form, you can position the camera on the small version of the terrain. The exact x,y,z coordinates can also be entered manually. You can also position the target by editing the head, pitch (vertical angle) and bank (horizontal angle) parameters.

Zoom/Exposure. Sets the values for Zoom level and Exposure factor (see Camera Settings, below).

Camera Settings

image of camera settings dialog

Photographic Medium. Here you can choose between Camcorder mode and Photochemical Film mode. Photochemical Film mode simulates the response of a proper camera, giving a result that looks more realistic.

Zoom/Magnification. The Zoom emulates the zoom of a photographic camera (as in field of view), and does not just move the camera back and forward. A zoom value of 1 corresponds exactly to a 90º Field Of View.
Because Terragen does not emulate a "spherical" lens as in a photographic camera, lower zoom factors can appear very unrealistic, and it is inadvisable to set zoom too low.

Image Properties

Here you can preview the image to be rendered before you render it at full resolution and detail. Normally for previews, the middle detail setting is adequate.

The checkbox marked "Land" toggles whether the landscape should be rendered, and the checkbox marked "Sky" toggles the sky. You can not turn on Sky rendering unless a cloud layer has been added.

Render Settings

image of render settings dialog

Atmospheric Accuracy. Sets the accuracy for the atmosphere. Normally the middle setting provides an image of good quality and only occasionally should you need to increase these values. Accuracy settings have a considerable impact on rendering times. In many cases, settings even lower than middle can produce very good results with lower rendering time.

Cloud Shading. Sets the accuracy for cloud shading. This does not have much effect with 2D clouds, but with 3D clouds an increase of this setting can yield dramatic improvements in image quality. However, the larger the value, the longer the rendering time.

Gamma Correction. Sets the Gamma Correction value for rendered images.

Render Landscape/Sky. The same as the checkboxes on the main render settings dialog. Once a cloud layer has been generated, you will almost always want to keep both checkboxes turned on, unless you are rendering a scene which does not include one or the other.

Back-face Culling. You should almost always leave this unless you deliberately wish to render the underside of the terrain. This disables rendering of polygons which are facing away from the camera. This option cuts rendering time significantly.



render controls

landscape

water

clouds

atmosphere

lighting

image
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©May, 1999 John McLusky