Attached Link: Siggraph 2006

What application are you using to encode, and on what platform? I presume you are on Windows, since you installed Quicktime and "restarted" and expected to see new codecs. Quicktime does not register any codecs with Windows. You must use Quicktime's own player, editor, etc. in order to play or create Quicktime content. For creation, you must purchase Quicktime Pro. Quicktime does include several good codecs, but they are only accessible through the fairly poor encoding and editing interface of Quicktime, so if you are going to purchase a product for this purpose, it might be better to spend a little more money and get something a bit more fully featured. Your codec question itself seems like a simple one, but unfortunately it's not. There are many factors involved, and sadly those products that excel in one area are often the worst in others! For example if cross-platform and legacy support (playing on older systems and the widest variety of systems, including Linux) is important, you would probably use MPEG1, but the quality is not good, and the size is terrible! So in large part it depends on your audience - what platform are they on (or multiple), how good is their machine, are they willing to install new codecs or even players in order to view your movie? Etc. If you simply want the highest quality codec with the smallest file size, you probably want h.264. Quicktime has a pretty good implementation in the latest Quicktime 7, though I'm not sure the h.264 capability is in the current Windows version. There is also a free version of the h.264 codec that is in development and currently available for testing. Nero's video products also have an implementation of this codec. But the bottom line is it is still in early development and not many devices and players support it, so you would be limiting your audience by using it. h.264 is also more demanding on CPU resources when playing than any other codec, so it would not be good for slower machines. Divx is a fairly popular option, but because it is a commercial codec the free version is lower quality. Xvid is a free codec based on the MPEG4 standard - the same standard that Divx is based on - and it generally results in higher quality for equivalent file size than Divx (even the Pro version). Being free is also a nice bonus. ;) I personally recommend Xvid for general, high quality encoding in most cases, but it does require your audience to download the Xvid codec to play your video. A more generalized .mp4 (MPEG4 encoded video in a .mp4 standard container) is the best high quality container/encoding format currently available, and they can easily be created with Quicktime's own MPEG4 encoder, so if you want high quality, cross-platform support, that may be your best option. And if you already have a video editing solution and all you want to do is compress with another program/codec, the $30 Quicktime purchase may be worthwhile. - Oshyan

Attached Link: Vue Product Comparison Chart

Norton is bloatware if you ask me. It's decent with virus detection, but it sure hogs your system while doing it. :p Trend Micro is nice though IMO, and I do recommend it.

Ghost is also recommended. I would recommend Powerquest's Disk Image product as an easier alternative, but apparently Symantec has gone and bought them. Bastards. :p Anyway, if your version of Ghost includes Ghost Explorer, you can retrieve individual files. Quite handy. Also you should be able to make a bootable CD with Ghost on it that will completely restore from a DOS prompt. No need to bother installing Windows.

• Oshyan

Message edited on: 07/02/2005 04:55

I hope you've learned a lesson and tossed out McAffee. ;) Seriously though, I've certainly been through that and it's awful. :( There's definitely a potential bright side in strarting over though. It's easy to get stuck in a rut stylistically if you have a lot of source files saved. It's good to start over sometimes. Just annoying when it's not your choice to do so. But I'm sure that, like a phoenix from the ashes, you'll rise again. - Oshyan

When "resizing" in Photoshop just uncheck "resample image". No change to the actual image (the pixels) will then occur, it will only set the DPI flag to your specified value. - Oshyan

If "a life" is what he's got, I hope it's not contageous. :p - Oshyan

Dialyn, I have seen many, many of these discussions, in the Terragen community, and in links from there to several others on Rendo. Not once in any of those threads I have read has anyone spoken up passionately in favor of the Hot 20. I have never seen a message saying "No, don't take the Hot 20 away, I love it!" The vast majority who post seem to see it as problematic at the least, and I think many would not mind if it were simply gone, although I think most would prefer it to be simply fixed somehow. Perhaps it is an unspoken majority who don't post in the forums who are in favor of it. If that's the case, I say to hell with them. Clearly they're only here to show off or have their ego stroked, not to participate in the real community. Not to share ideas, techniques, etc. Not to give, but to take. Who needs 'em? So I say if anyone really loves the Hot 20 and wants it to stay the way it is, speak up now! - Oshyan

There's a very simple way to show that the problems with the Hot 20 are being taken seriously. Remove it until it can be fixed. Period. Simple as that. It's clear it's not working as intended, and it's causing a lot of problems. The people who are causing these problems don't seem to be vocal in the forums, they just vote. Maybe taking away their little ego toy would make them speak up, who knows. But we can say for sure that the way the Hot20 works right now is just a trigger for anger and resentment across many communities. So remove it until it can be fixed. It's not complicated. Lazydog, it was me who made the comments some time ago about a "transparent" system, just to satiate your curiousity. ;) - Oshyan

I wish I could help you with some info, but I'm not a lucky V5:I user just yet. I just wanted to say I'm really looking forward to seeing your 3m terrain in Vue. And if you need any help sharing it in a Vue format (because of the size), let me know. I'd be glad to host it. I'm anxious to see some apples-to-apples comparisons if the various landscape apps and this seems one of the best ways to do it. - Oshyan

Attached Link: St. Helens 3M DEM Terragen Terrains

Unfortunately I'm leaving for the weekend in a few hours, but I will work on this as soon as I get back, if you have not yet found a solution. Keep us posted! I have been waiting a long time to see good resolution DEM terrain in Vue. Considering the variability of procedurals from one application to the next, it's the only way we can truly compare apples to apples between terrain renderers. - Oshyan

Like I said, I was planning to wait until the release. Having been a part of many beta tests before, I know how it works quite well. It sounds like Adam does as well. I think his particular issue - and I share this to some degree, although I think it is a more common practice than he seems to - is the specific claim that no other product has comparable technologies. That is in my experience a fairly common marketing claim, and it's most often quite dubious. I'm sure they have some kind of logical justification for the claim, but whether it would actually agree with a more objective comparison of these features with those of applications like World Construction Set and World Builder is questionable. In any case I agree it's fairly useless speculation right now, especially when release is so very close. :) - Oshyan

Not bad at all Rids! Nicely done. 24bit .tga seems to be 24bit/channel, which is perfectly adequate. I think we've found our format! Now, I wonder if you could import 2048x2048 tiles into separate terrains in Vue, then just position them right next to each other to get a 4096. - Oshyan

Yeah, the shaded view in Leveller is really about the best view you'l get of the whole terrain. I'll be posting some exported shaded views with my terrain later today. Some of the features around St. Helens are amazing, the detail in the lava flows, even roads and what look like they might even be trails! Cool stuff. In any case a 24bit .tga file will, I believe, only have 8bit/channel resolution, so it's no better than the .bmp option. Did you notice stairstepping in the imported terrain? What about .tif? - Oshyan