Computer-generated backdrops - 13
Lessons learned
One of the best things I did on my terrain modeling quest was
to invest in a fast computer. If you are serious about using
this technique, you want to get the fastest computer you can
afford. I started with a four-year-old laptop and moved to a
computer with a fast i7 CPU and 9GB of RAM. Rending sped up
by more than a factor of 10 with the faster hardware. Terragen
has since been released in a 64-bit version which helps perfor-
mance as well, and this is the version you want if your operat-
ing system is 64-bit. Plan on dedicating this computer to the
effort while you are rendering. An alternative to rendering on
your own computer has recently become available. There are
now rendering farm services available for Terragen from Ranch
Computing
This may be cheaper or at
least faster than rendering on your PC.
The key barrier to using this technique is the significant
amount of effort and time consumed by setting up the
model, and by the rendering process itself. I spent at least
100 hours setting up the model for my first scene, Virgelle,
MT. The rendering process took 36 hours per scene, and
contained 10 frames to create the panorama (yes, over two
weeks of rendering.) My later image of Fort Benton, MT had
similar details, but a much simpler approach to the shader
network. It took about four hours per frame to render. The
conclusion is that a more shaders do not necessarily yield an
appreciably better image, but do add a lot of time and com-
plexity. This realization started to make me wonder – how
simple could I set up a scene and still get results that would
still put my artistic abilities to shame?
To test the wisdom of my hindsight, I configured a DEM-based
terrain of southwest Colorado which included the famous RGS
scene of Lizard Head pass. Using just three shader layers and
a single model of a conifer tree, I was able to generate the
scenes [16,17] with just a few hours of work. I contend that
even these results far exceed what a person with my artistic
skills could achieve with paint and brush. The lesson here is
to keep the models as simple as possible and remember that
these images are backgrounds.
Conclusion
In the end, my experience with terrain modeling was another
challenging yet satisfying chapter in this great hobby. The real-
ism of the backdrops is way beyond anything I could have
achieved by hand-painting. Being able to use the actual topog-
raphy of scenes added a new dimension to the realism. I am
very pleased with the results, and hope it will inspire you to
use this technique to create a masterpiece background.
“... invest in a fast computer”
MRH-Jul 2014
