Hi(gh)!

Am 28.12.2017 um 08:55 schrieb Thomas de Groot:

> A long time dream indeed. Third party programs approach that dream; 
> alas, the better ones are not free.
> 
> I own GeoControl, which has been succeeded by World Creator from the 
> same makers. As far as I know, it is one of the best programs for a 
> reasonable price. http://www.bitethebytes.net/bitethebytes/

Does World Creator export to 16-bit PNG as used with POV-Ray? As I need 
to build VERY large heightfields (to be wrapped around spheres as meshes 
afterwards), I would need the Professional Edition - which at 289$, at 
least for the moment, is out of reach for me.

> 
> L3DT is another one - which I never tried - but with a free version. 
> http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/downloads/standard.php

Sounds very promising, but again only with the Professional version - 
which, on the other hand, at 34.95$ for the "Indie" license is 
affordable to me. But I never ordered anything from the US - there maybe 
a couple of pitfalls... I remember having ordered two organ player's 
textbooks from Switzerland (a non-euro country), which were priced at 5 
SFR each one (about 7 euros back then), but including shipping and 
exchange fees, it ended up at a whopping 22 euros...

> 
> And then there are:
> http://planetgenesis.sourceforge.net/ (free)

I will give it a try... just downloaded it! The planet on the web page 
did not look very realistic (when it comes to height distribution)... 
but at least it exports explicitly to POV-Ray and uses 16-bit PNG 
grayscale images!

> http://www.daylongraphics.com/ (not free)

Also not too expensive... and it works with POV-Ray!

> http://www.cyberfunks.de/page/terrabrush/index.htm (free)

Perhaps also worth a try...

> http://planetside.co.uk/ (free)

Terragen! An old friend, which I used already back in 1999 and which in 
fact was the basis for my very first animations!

And the version 4 looks almost like a system usable for Khyberspace on 
its own... at least with its commercial sub-versions, which of course 
are exceptionally high-priced but probably worth it all!

But even the free version is VERY promising! I just downloaded it...

> http://www.fracterra.com/wilbur.html (free)

Amazing! Almost perfect... or purrfect, as an ailurophile like me would 
put it! I've not only downloaded it, I already started to play around 
with it! However, the POV-Ray 16-bit TGA export turned out to be faulty, 
but that's no big issue, as it also exports to 16-bit PNG!

> http://www.world-machine.com/index.php (not free)

I did not try this yet, as I probably will be occupied with Wilbur for 
the next weeks!

Thank you very, very much, Thomas!

See you in Khyberspace!

Yadgar

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