Hey folks, just thought I'd mention we've finally gotten the TerraPak product available.

From the TerraPak website:

TerraPak™ is an easy-to-use, but advanced toolkit for users of Vue 6 and above. With TerraPak, and a few enlightened clicks, Vue quickly replicates the hyper-reality seen in many 3d landscape images and photos, including those from Terragen™.

For the immediate future, we're also including over 20 mats from Monsoon. And for those interested in how it works, there's a 35 page manual that goes along with the toolkit.

Special thanks to Peggy and Wabe for help in testing!

I can't wait to get home to buy this now and start playing :-)

Congratulations Chipp!  This is an awesome package. 

Cool ! Just bought it, and now i'm waiting for the download link

Sirenia,

The download link is automated. You should receive it in 15 minutes or less, if not then give me a shout and I'll manually fullfill if necessary. Thanks!

Got it ! Got it ! Got it ! Got it ! :m_blush: :m_blush: :m_blush: Thanks Chipp :-) of to play with it now yeeeeeyyyyyyy!!!

Yes indeed...a fabulous package to say the least! 

Now nothin's going to get done around the house for sure...lol!

bookmark

Mazak

Outstanding - glad to have it :) Now to find time to play with it.

Excellent materials!!  I just bought the TerraPack, and am playing around with it now.  Very valuable information and a great set of tools for my digital toolbox! 
Awesome work Chipp, thank you.   :)     

Just got it, thinks I will have to get sea view now and do great stuff

Nice addition to my render toolkit. The only problems I have is that there doesn't seem any way to load the render settings into esprit and there are no options to change the type of AA to crisp as in the example. These I guess are Infinite only features.

Hi Rids,

Hmmm. I'll check that  out and see if I can't come up with a solution. Give me a hour.

best,
Chipp

Here's the skinny for Esprit:

You can use the RenderSettings which are a part of the test scenes: For instance the scene:
TerraMountain_4.vue rendered in Vue Infinite at 1600x800 with on my WinXP PC (Core 2 Duo 2GB Ram) in 8'15" with CRISP AA ON. I then reduced it to 800x600 with a single Unsharp mask in Photoshop and it looks like this:

Now, going to Esprit, the same rendering with the Automatic Anti-aliasing (not CRISP) rendered out just a tad faster at 7'52" and post processed the same looks like:

Pretty much identical. Just for comparison, here's the scene with all Anti-aliasing turned ON and rendered straight at 800 x 450-- NO POSTWORK OF ANY KIND. (3'42")

So, I think it's fair to say, these all look enough alike you can pick and choose your technique. Interesting is how fast this scene renders period. HTH - Chipp

This is a great product and I enjoy it a lot.  Thank you.

My only problem is when I try to generate an ecosystem on any of the terra-materials vue crashes.  Is anyone else having this problem?

It only happens when I access the material through the World Browser.

I don't see any crashing here. What layer are you trying to generate an ecosystem on?

The TerraPack is absolutely fantastic. It is so packed full of both knowledge and materials. It is a bargain. Thanks so much Chipp. 

OK, I got this and just tried it out.  All I can say is WOW!  This is exactly why i have bought Bryce, Vue, and Carrara for.  I have always wanted to get the results for landscapes that this allows me to create.  I did try terragen, but never got the hang of it, needing to be able to bring other objects in easily; so I gave up on it.  Now, I don't need it!

John

Quote - This is a great product and I enjoy it a lot.  Thank you.

My only problem is when I try to generate an ecosystem on any of the terra-materials vue crashes.  Is anyone else having this problem?

It only happens when I access the material through the World Browser.

I just tried an eco population with the Terra4 scene and it worked fine for me

The first couple of times I tried it, it crashed.  It seems if I try to use an ecosystem by going directly to the grass layer, for example, it will crash everytime.  If I navigate to the grass layer through the material editor of the whole terrain it works.  Strange, but at least I can get it to work.  i know i am probably not explaining it well.  Hope it is good enough to help you though.

Quote - The first couple of times I tried it, it crashed.  It seems if I try to use an ecosystem by going directly to the grass layer, for example, it will crash everytime.  If I navigate to the grass layer through the material editor of the whole terrain it works.  Strange, but at least I can get it to work.  i know i am probably not explaining it well.  Hope it is good enough to help you though.

Okay, I was able to reproduce the crash by going to the grass layer of the material via the World Browser.   This is a Vue bug not a TerraPak bug.  I think it has to do with applying an eco-system to a nested mixed-material layer when selecting it from the World Browser.  I suspect that Vue is crashing because of a conflict with the nested material and an unresolved parent material.  You should report this bug to e-on.

Quote - > Quote - The first couple of times I tried it, it crashed.  It seems if I try to use an ecosystem by going directly to the grass layer, for example, it will crash everytime.  If I navigate to the grass layer through the material editor of the whole terrain it works.  Strange, but at least I can get it to work.  i know i am probably not explaining it well.  Hope it is good enough to help you though.

 

Okay, I was able to reproduce the crash by going to the grass layer of the material via the World Browser.   This is a Vue bug not a TerraPak bug.  I think it has to do with applying an eco-system to a nested mixed-material layer when selecting it from the World Browser.  I suspect that Vue is crashing because of a conflict with the nested material and an unresolved parent material.  You should report this bug to e-on.

Actually I think I know the reason now why creating an eco-system from a mixed material component selected from the World Browser causes a crash.  It's because when you select a material from the World Browser, it uses the Global Material List pointers for the entire scene which could point to multiple different objects which share that material.  Eco-Systems are tied at creation time to a single object hence the crash.  The bottom line is that if you want to create an ecosystem, select the material using the standard object material list so that Vue knows which object to build the Eco-System on.

Great explanaation. Thank you. I have come to the same conclusion. My problem is the material editor displays the list of mixed materials poorly in vue because the window can't be resized. The World Browser is resizable making it easier to use. I sure hope vue makes all their windows resizable in every direction one day and that the vue windows work better with dual monitors. Terrapak is a great product and worth every penny. Plus, the manual was a joy to read.

Here's a Terrapak driven scene with an ecosystem painted on with the painter..

Thanks for the Terrapak, Chipp!

I'm going to have to get this pack, but need to wait a little, because I already spent my money on Carrara 6 pro!
 But it looks terrific!

Wow Powertec, what a great scene. I'm jealous. What are the fir tree you're using at the top? They look great!

they look a bit like XFrog trees to me.

I must be confusing you, Chipp with my different screen names!! Long story...
I'm using the Distant  Pine from Cornacopia  and the bushes from the same place, not sure who made them...
I believe this scene is yours, I just moved the camera around and added the ecosystem.  I'll  have more time on my hands tomorrow to come up with my own terrain. Your e-book has a bunch of Great information in it and I have yet to scratch the surface...

Thanks Chipp!  I'll be reaching new levals with Terrapak!

terraterrains go in the "terrain brushes" folder inside the bitmap folder Chip? Love esther

Hi Esther,

I've been putting them in the bitmaps folder. I think that's where they default open to.

best, Chipp

okay - thanks. very nice set.

Very nice product indeed, having a lot of fun here, thank you very much :)

Ab

Too bad the purchase is handled by Payscam, PayPal=no purchase. 

I am just going to jump in here and hope this doesn't go into a problem of comment after comment and divert this thread. I purchased an inexpensive product through a company, not realizing it was through pay-pal. It was defective and the company gave me a rough time. However, when they finally said they would refund me, paypal sent me a letter and it was done quickly through my charge card. I have had little experience using a charge card through pay-pal, but it has always been good.

Quote - Too bad the purchase is handled by Payscam, PayPal=no purchase. 

I'm sorry you feel that way. We, here at Altuit, have been using PayPal for many years without a single incident. Hopefully, someday this product will also be sold at Cornucopia3D, where you can purchase it there as well.

-Chipp

I'm soory to be a dolt but where do I unzip this to?

Just unzip it anywhere, then check out the manual. It will tell you where everything is supposed to go.

Hi Chipp,

I purchased TerraPak last night and have been working with it all day today. All I can say is, OUTSTANDING WORK!!! High quality stuff. I learned a whole lot about mixing materials in a very short amount of time. This is a must have. Keep 'em comin'.

~jr

Just wondering...does anybody mind if I use their quote from this thread on the TerraPak website? Is that Kosher? I probably should contact the individuals directly. Anyway, thanks to all for a wonderful 'reception' for this product. It is much appreciated and will help in creating the next set of TerraPak tools.

best, Chipp

Hi Chipp, you can use anything I said hehe, but I don't think I set too much yet. The TerraPak is a fantastic improvement to Vue. It's like having a brand new version of Vue. It's so easy to use and the explanatory notes are realy only needed if one wants to customize things. With the clear and concise instructions, customizing is also easy. Esther Carney

Is there a way to use the Terrapak Rendersettings in Pro or Esprit? , they can be loaded in Infinite but I can't find them in the other versions.

Read page 1 of this same thread. There's a post there I have on 'the skinny on Esprit'

-Chipp

OOPS, just read the page, and I guess it doesn't directly answer your question. Well, the answer is open the test scene file, and copy down the settings. Then, you can use the same settings as you render other scenes. Don't worry too much about the 'crisp' vs 'automatic' anti-aliasing, as my previous posts show there's not too much difference in the end render.

I made my first scene using TerraPak last night and once I figured my way round a couple of bits where I got confused (I really shouldn't try this new fangled stuff after a day at work) I got a reasonable scene together.  Then I decided to try and remove an unsightly lump from the terrain and accidently took a chunk out of the nicely rounded hill.  Fortunately this turned out to not be a bad thing as it created a rather striking cliff.  My initial render with Chipp's settings and atmospheres was around 15minutes but my machine is old and slow so I wasn't bothered by that.

Having used Chipp's excellent fast render settings and atmosphere I decided to go a bit silly.  I switched to GI rendering, turned up a few of the settings, increased the render size and dropped in some fluffy clouds that came with  Linda's Incredibly Lush Buccanneer Palms.  Then I set it rendering and went to bed.  15 hours later the picture was finished and I've posted a slightly downsized version to my impworks blog if anyone wants a look.  Click the image to see a bigger version than the preview. 

I have to say this looks like it will quickly become of my must have suggestions for new Vue users.
 

Nice pic! Where did you say the clouds came from? Was it a scene file which included the Palms? I always thought Linda's packs came with only plants.

Glad you like the picture Chipp.  I just double checked and I got the wrong one of Linda's packs - there are five really nice atmosphere in the Incredibly Lush Tropical Paradise set and I borrowed the clouds from the Lush Tropical Blue atmosphere.  

Quote - Just wondering...does anybody mind if I use their quote from this thread on the TerraPak website? Is that Kosher?

Fine with me. Anything I said I meant in all sincerity. You've done a great job with TerraPak.

~jr

I believe my quote says it all.
lol!

This looks absolutely fantastic, going to get it as soon as poss, great work Chipp.

Jon

Thanks for the wonderful support. Just thought I'd mention that TerraPak is now available at Cornucopia3D in the Tools section. I'm now working on a new add-on for it, and hope to share some of it's secrets soon.

-Chipp

If you buy it at Cornicopia do you still get the extra mats?
Thanks,
Marque