Terragen: What’s Planned for the Future

(in no particular order)
Below is a cheery, optimistic look at what Terragen could be capable of in the future. A more formal outline of planned features, improvements and bug-fixes can be found in the Suggestions List. Please refer to the Suggestions List before making any suggestions of what you would like to added to Terragen.

trees
Various types (plus user-definable types), bushes, etc.

grass and small-scale vegetation
Long grass, short grass, sheep-chewed grass, you name it.
I have already started experimenting with a simple tree-rendering system (see the pine tree above). Long before it is able to render realistic trees, it should be possible to use it for grass and small plants in order to add a little extra to the foreground. Even if the plants are not realistic enough to be viewed close up, they should provide some badly-needed sense of scale to the images.

stones
Not just rocky surfaces with different textures,
but shingle, pebbles and boulders which sit on the landscape.

comprehensive water system
Rivers / lakes (reflective, rough/choppy etc.).
Rain, waterfalls (plus spray).

improved cloud layer system
Modifications to ‘shading’, proper transparency and multiple layers.

shadow-casting clouds
Sunbeams (feature preview) Clouds will be able to cast shadows onto the landscape, and also into the atmosphere itself allowing ‘sunbeams’ through the clouds. To get an idea of what will be possible, see the teaser pic to the left (rendered using an unreleased version of Terragen).

other lighting effects
Sun effects such as lens-flare (better than the tacky clichéd lens-flare you’ve seen everywhere).
Realistic radiosity/environment lighting, i.e. landscape etc. is correctly lit by sky, landscape etc.

moons / planets in the sky
Versatile enough to create images like the Planetside logo, without having to resort to two or three rendering programs.

arbitrary model support
The ability to render arbitrary objects, such as people, houses, cars…

import / export capability
USGS DEM/SDTS. VistaPro DEM. PoV-Ray heightfields (TGA). Export Terrain polygon mesh (LWO, DXF, …). Export surface textures. Camera and lighting data (Lightwave, 3DS Max, …). Export ZBuffer…