"Gilles Tran" <git### [at] wanadoofr> wrote in message
news:3f25a3b9@news.povray.org...

> 3f24dca3@news.povray.org...
> > Anyone know of any tutorials which can provide examples about how one
can
> go
> > about taking a heightmap and basically plugging it into PovRay and
almost
> > magically getting out decent landscapes with only a little tweaking,
like
> > one can with Terragen?
>
> Well, Terragen is a specialised landscape/atmosphere generator and is very
> good at what it does. Btw, making good TG landscapes that doesn't look
"out
> of the box" requires *** a lot *** of tweaking. Few people really master
TG.
>
> Anyway the heighfield isn't the issue there, it's the atmosphere and skies
> that are more difficult to do in POV-Ray than in TG, again because of the
> latter's excellent atmospheric engine (which is not a raytracer). Doing
the
> same in Pov is sometimes impossible, particularly if one wants to use
media
> to recreate atmospheric effects as the render times make the solution
> unworkable. Often, it's more practical to use a TG background or sky box.
>
> If you want some examples of code for some decent (but far from great)
> Pov-Ray landscapes, see here :
> http://www.oyonale.com/ressources/english/sources13.htm
>
> I also wrote about using a TG background in POV-Ray :
> http://www.oyonale.com/ressources/english/mkofdark3.htm


Hmm, those examples are truely magnificant (I practicaly grew up in the Rain
image, it looks very much like my hometown)! I see what you mean, though,
about TG being basically "not so easy" to come up with a non-"out of the
box" landscape. But I think you've pushed me in the right direction here at
least. I think that POV-Ray is potentially more versatile than TG for larger
landscapes, I'm hoping this'll prove to be true.

BTW, since I have the opportunity to say so, you have great talents. I love
your IRTC submissions, as I'm sure practically everyone does.

Thanks,
Josh

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