Terragen 2 can create 3D renders of landscape, atmospherics (clouds and sky), lighting, plants and vegetation, as well as animations.

Terragen is not a new program, but has really come a long way over the years and is built on a mature rendering engine. I remember tinkering with it in high school (10+ years ago). It’s just gotten even more impressive.

Terragen 2 Features

Here are just a few of Terragen 2′s great features:

• Hybrid micropolygon renderer optimised for large displacements and very large landscapes.
• Render entire planets, sweeping vistas, tiny rock gardens, or anything in between.
• Export high resolution objects from displaced surfaces.
• Import 3D objects for rendering from third-party apps.
• Render millions of plants and other objects using instancing. Billions of virtual polygons are handled with ease.
• 3D painting of colors and masks that can control almost anything in the scene.
• Photorealistic atmosphere and sunlight.
• and more features…

Landscape Animation Demo

Renderfarm from RenderFarm on Vimeo.

Powerful 3D Renderer

Starting at $299 USD, Terragen 2 is a bit pricey for a hobbyist, but for a professional, this isn’t a bad price for such a powerful app.

In fact, Terragen is so powerful and realistic that it’s been used on the National Geographic Channel (422‘s demo reel) and in movies like War of the Worlds, The Incredibles, Time Machine and The Polar Express.

Note: There is a free version (800×600 max image render size) available for download.

3D Landscape Examples

So, what is Terragen 2 capable of producing? Here are some examples of actual images created with Terragen 2.

Official Terragen 2 Gallery

For more examples of the power of Terragen 2, check out Luc Bianco’s Gallery.