Hello everyone,

my name is Johannes Rosenberg - cajomi - and I am the developer of GeoControl.
Since Darthmagus has posted some top images with GeoControl, questions appear in the comments to his renders.

At time, there is no Website online, so there are no information in the internet.

The possible main question: "When will it be available?", I can not answer exact. I hope during Feb. this year.

If you have any questions, please ask me or Darthmagus here.

Johannes Rosenberg

hi Johannes is GeoControl a standalone application or a plugin to some software? Which format does it export to? Bitmaps only, or also geometry? Does it support 16-bit images? How does it compare to -say- Worldmachine (which I have)? How much is it going to cost? Thanks much Orio

Well, it is a standalone.
It exports every important format: ter, pgm, tga, r32, raw16 (not yet implemented but will be in final release), obj in combination with a normal map (for low resolution terrains for games, comparable to Zbrush), and bmp.
That mean, Vue, Bryce, PovRay, Carrara, Terragen, Mojoworld, 3DSmax with Dreamscaper Plugin, can use the high resolution terrains (16bit). All others can use the geometry with additional normal map.

At time import of 16bit tiff is not surported. Import is ter, r32, pgm, tga and any images (greyscale or colour, bmp, jpg and png)

Worldmachine is the may be most powerful generator on the market. The approach of GeoControl is totally different. It is much easyer to use, more landscape orientated, for example you do not choose a noise algorithmus but a landshape (moutain, hill ...).
It has 22 different landscape forming filters, which can be combined (max 48 filters for one terrain).
And it has a revolutionary new generation system:
Dynamic Level Generation. This enables the user to have much more control over the generating process and to use the revolutionary brush tool of GeoControl. It is a totally different brush, and so, at first a bit strange. But this brush never destroy the terrain surface, as other brushes, you can change the height so often you want, and the terrain still is a terrain. The brush can also apply different filtersettings to different parts of the terrain.

So it is not equal to other terrain generators. But at last, it produces very high qualtiy terrains with a extrem high amount of details and is easy to use.

To price is not fixed yet, but it will be around 50 at the start time.

Johannes

It sounds very interesting, especially the interface part. Worldmachine creates great terrain but it's not easy to master it. I am always in favor of "human" interfaces. One more question, you mention a brush, will it be possible within GeoControl to paint things like a road, river, etc, or will a paint program still be required for this? Even better would be if there could be a wizard that creates randomly things like roads and rivers - but maybe I am asking too much for $50 ;-) Finally a thing that I always wished it was possible with terrain generators: to paint material areas over it, to assing different materials to. Say for instance I make a terrain, then paint part of it in red part in white and when it comes out it is an OBJ with a MTL file that specifies two different textures for it. It would be easy, then, in the final application, to replace the textures with full materials (procedural or not). How about it? :-)

Sounds VERY interesting. Keep us posted!

To the roads and rivers: this was initallly for what I began to develope GeoControl. But in this version this tools will miss. They will come in version 2 or a pro release, very soon, because I need them myself. GeoControl now is first the base, to create the terrains, where roads are sensful. To the materials: The only mask, GeoControl has, is a flowmap, and for me it is the most important. A flowmap analyse, where water would flow, and this part of a landscape has in nature typically not the same vegetation or ground, and so needs other shaders. Selections, on slopes, heights, or combination of both will follow in the version2, and be exportable. So far you need the controls of your favorite application. Johannes

Good luck with it Johannes, it sounds like a useful addition to the landscape toolkit, I look forward to seeing what it can do. I'm a long time user of Worldmachine but a fresh approach does sound like an interesting alternative. One last thing, what will the price equate to in dollars?

the dollar change, when it starts. So a bit more in dollars. But we will se.

More than $50? Ooo dear....I have never looked at or heard of World Machine, and I am only a hobby level person with Vue, but I HATE Vue's own terrain editor! I saw an art image in the gallery and ran here to ask about this Geo Control with great excitment... I don't suppose there would be a "lite" version for people like me? Forgive me if this is not appropriate to ask....perhaps there is a LOT of programming to create such a thing?! I will be watching for news!

Attached Link: http://www.world-machine.com/

Lyne, as long as you don't make renders for commercial purpose, and as long as you don't mind not having some benefits of the commercial version, there is a Basic version of Worldmachine that is freely available at the attached link. As for GeoControl, 50 Euros sound like a very nice price. Writing software is difficult and time consuming, and requires learning and skills, therefore I find it right that the authors ask the customers to share the costs a bit.

I've seen your Carrara renders. Can't wait to buy it.

@Lyne I suggest also Terraformer as good freeware for starters. GeoControl will be very easy to use, from the start up. Most free versions are offered, because the software is not easy to use and you have to spend time, to learn it.

sounds real good so far, if it delivers i know ill pluck down the money for it, easily worth a few $ or to get better control over the terrains.

GeoControl is a powerfull tool! It's very easy to create original or classic terrains. You can combine several presets and control step by step the generation in the 3D window. Save settings for re-use them is very easy. Also you can play with layers and save your entire project. After loading a GC terrain in Vue, you can tweak it from standard to procedural with great details. You will like GeoControl like I like it!

Where are the example pics of the terraing generated with this again, please? I have to say, with the newest release of WorldMachine, other tools are nearing most features I require, but I will probably be interested enough to buy this just as I did WM.

Attached Link: peten's gallery

There are some examples in my gallery (Vue works).

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Y&Artist=cajomi&Form.sess_id=2928636&Form.sess_key=1

also samples at my gallery most missing for me when working with WM is a brush, to be able to plan a landspace

Hi

Just saw the galleries. The least I can say, I'm so interested in your product !!!

Since GeoControl is a standalone application, could you tell us if it will exist for both Mac and PC ?

First only for PC. But it is definitly planned to make a Mac version.

Ok, then I'll wait Thanks

Any word on when GeoControl will be made available? Or did I miss the announcement?

You do not miss the annoucment. It is still in work, just writing the help and basic tuts. I hope to release it till end of march, but may be mid of april. Johannes Rosenberg

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