Planetside Software has released Terragen 4.2, the latest version of its landscape-generation software.The update cuts render times for terrain by up to 4x, and adds a new option to use a Terragen render as a projected texture when exporting geometry to other software.Faster terrain rendering, plus more options when working with graphs or exporting geometryThe update improves ray tracing of displaceable surfaces like terrain, particularly at low angles where rays are travelling nearly parallel to the surface.In the test scenes shown on Planetside’s blog, render times are cut by between 3.7x and 4.8x, athough Planetside says that typical render time reductions “will likely be less dramatic”.It is also now possible to show bounding boxes for shapes and heightfields in the preview.Workflow in the Network View has been improved, with groups now snapping to the grid and automatically capturing any nodes they surround after moving or resizing them.Users of the Professional edition get a new option to use the renderered image as a projected texture when exporting geometry. It works with any type of camera, including spherical cameras.There are also a few other more specific changes and bugfixes, which you can find via the link below.Pricing and availabilityTerragen 4.2 is available for 64-bit Windows 7+ and Mac OS X 10.8+. The update is free to existing users.New licences of Terragen 4 Professional cost $699; Terragen 4 Creative, which has a restricted set of features and caps maximum output resolution, costs $349. See a feature comparison table here. Read a full list of features in Terragen 4.2 in Planetside Software’s online changelogRead more about Terragen on Planetside Software’s website
