Terragen 2 or Vue 9

[Smalerbi]

Hello All,

I’m looking at getting one of these two packages. They both yield similar results and at first glance Vue 9 seems to be more user friendly with Max and Vray. I wanted to get some comparisons for those of you that are using one or both. If you could please share the pros and cons, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Scott

[stevesideas]

I use 3dsmax and Vue 8...to some degree but have found it problematic. I cant seem to get good integration with lighting within Vue and vray. Maybe im just inexperienced. I think Terragen 2 looks good but im not sure how versatile it is with foliage population etc. Probably havent been too much help but thats just my two cents.

[Smalerbi]

I use 3dsmax and Vue 8...to some degree but have found it problematic. I cant seem to get good integration with lighting within Vue and vray. Maybe im just inexperienced. I think Terragen 2 looks good but im not sure how versatile it is with foliage population etc. Probably havent been too much help but thats just my two cents.

Thanks Steve….no problem. Every little bit of information helps. Lets wait and see if anyone else would like to chime in.

[mcvltd]

I haven't used Vue9 but have got Terragen2.

The things I struggle with are-

1- I find it really hard to navigate around the 3d space and just move items around or find them.
2- It's not easy to learn - best thing is to buy the pre-prepared packs from NWDA and pick them to pieces.
3- I struggle to get good materials on imported x-frog items (although this is probably down to lack of patience!)
4- You can't render out a equitangular 360 degree image (for use as a HDRI map) so end up pointing the camera in 6 different positions (90 degrees to each other) and then have to sew the separate hdri's back together which unfortunately results in slightly different GI between all six images so you end up with visible seams. ok for lighting I suppose but not for use as a background image. For that you'll have to render out a separate camera view, matched as best you can to your max camera.
5- Exchanging camera info between max and terragen seems to be somewhat problematic.. I end up just guessing.
6- Rendering is painfully slow. Very painfully slow.
7- If you can get past the above then you'll find the final images to be awesome!

Hope that helps in some way?
Rob.

[joconnell]

Must admit I was very disappointed in vue when I got it - one major thing was only being allowed access to the forums once you've purchased, only to find out a lot of issues and frustrations of the users. Again that's not the current version though. Terragen has a freebie version either way I think?

[JeffG2]

Why not go with ForestPro or Multiscatter?

[Smalerbi]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I downloaded the demo version of Vue 9 and I will have some time next week to play around with it. As with every software package, there seems to be issues with it so by no means is there going to be a utopian solution. I will take my best guess……thanks again.

Rob, with regards to render times, I found some information on a forum that might help. If you are not aware of this, please click on the link below and see if this helps with the render times and navigation.

Rendering settings: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6442.0
Raytracing: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=8300.0
Navigation: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6103.0

Bleep, I do have multi-scatter, however, I’m looking at going beyond the simple tool for scattering planting material in my scenes. Programs like Vue and Terragen take environments to the next level and beyond. I do realize that it comes with a price with regards to rendering time. At the moment, there is no quick solution for photo-real landscapes but it is getting faster.

[add101]

I was doing some tests with Vue8 demo. Quite a steep learning cuve, but it looks powerful for generating landscapes and environments.
The problem i had was an issue with rendering with the vrayphysicalcamera. Hopefully this is resolved in version 9, or there is some workaround. I think it was mainly the skies. They are in the Vue section of the interface, not in max's environment slot.

[Neilg]

The best option i've seen is to create a hdri within vue and use that to render a scene in max/vray. for trees/ground plants i'd do everything in max with forest/multiscatter. Exporting a terrain from vue would work though.
You could even take the camera movement back into vue at the end i think, and render the sky again so the clouds work properly. You'd only need to do that if there was a huge movement though.
vue's atmopshere, lighting, clouds & terrain model... but max's everything else, and both are isolated from each other.

[Smalerbi]

So far, I am leaning towards Vue. One of the things that intrigue me about Vue 9 extreme is the Max integration. It appears to take software that seems to be foreign and makes it look familiar, however, I’m sure it is a lot more complex then the demo.

Vue & Max demo: http://mirror-us.e-onsoftware.com/pr...treamDemo.html

[JeffG2]

I've looked through the Terragen image forum here: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=16.0
and there something very POVrayish about the renders. Some are ok. The vast majority are very unimpressive.
I've seen much better work here from people using a proxy solution.