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Terragen
Los Angeles, California, United States
What it is
Terragen builds, renders, and animates natural environments for landscape visualization, visual effects, and artistic work. It creates procedural and heightfield terrain, can use real-world terrain data, and can add details such as cliffs and overhangs. Its spherical planetary atmosphere model includes volumetric clouds and fog, multiple scattering, and global illumination. The renderer combines micropolygon rendering with ray tracing and supports anti-aliasing, motion blur, depth of field, and render elements. Nearly every project parameter can be animated, and image sequences can be rendered through the interface or command line. Terragen imports 3D objects and camera data, exports terrain as heightfields or geometry in formats including TER, EXR, LWO, OBJ, and FBX, and exchanges camera data through FBX, Nuke CHAN, and Maya MOV. It can also generate HDR environments for lighting in other renderers. Terragen runs on Windows and macOS, with Linux render-node support. The free edition is for non-commercial use or 30 days of commercial evaluation and limits still renders to 1280 × 900. Professional subscriptions start at $10 a month.
For and against
For
- Creates procedural and heightfield terrains
- Supports volumetric clouds and fog
- Animates project parameters and renders image sequences
- Exports terrain in several listed formats
- Free edition supports non-commercial use
Against
- Free still renders are limited to 1280 × 900
- Free edition has no animation renders
- Commercial evaluation in the free edition lasts 30 days
The verdict
Terragen combines terrain creation, atmosphere, rendering, animation, and export tools for natural environments. The free edition has clear limits, while Professional subscriptions start at $10 a month.
Who it suits
Terragen may suit artists and visualization or visual-effects teams building natural environments, especially those needing animated landscapes or terrain export. Educational licenses are available on request to institutions, faculty, and students who provide proof of current educational status.
Plans and prices
Terragen 4 Free
Non-commercial or 30-day commercial evaluation · 1280×900 render size · detail 0.6 · antialiasing 6
Read 14 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
Professional INDIE 50 monthly
Professional features · 5 additional render licenses · 1-year maintenance with perpetual purchase tier
Read 14 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
Professional INDIE 100 monthly
Professional features
Read 14 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
Professional SMALL CO monthly
Professional features
Read 14 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
Professional MID CO monthly
Professional features
Read 14 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
Professional LARGE CO monthly
Professional features
Read 14 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
Professional INDIE 50 annual
Professional features · 5 additional render licenses
Read 14 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
Professional INDIE 50 perpetual
Professional features · 1-year maintenance included
Read 14 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
Terragen 4 Professional — INDIE 50
Professional edition; five additional render licenses with purchase; two with subscription
Read 8 Oct 2026 · planetside.co.uk
On the record
- Animation
- Nearly every project parameter can be animated, with keyframes, timeline and curve editors, text keyframe import and command-line frame rendering.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- API
- The product comparison lists a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) API feature for Terragen 4 Professional.planetside.co.uk · read 8 Oct 2026
- API and SDK
- Terragen RPC exposes high-level and low-level Python APIs plus JSON-RPC 2.0 over TCP; documentation includes installation, source and tutorials.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Atmosphere
- Its spherical planetary atmosphere model includes volumetric clouds and fog, multiple scattering, and global illumination.planetside.co.uk · read 8 Oct 2026
- Atmosphere and clouds
- The atmosphere model simulates Rayleigh, Mie and ozone effects with volumetric clouds, fog, multiple scattering and global illumination.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Camera support
- Cameras support physical lens controls, motion blur, depth of field, orthographic, spherical, fisheye and stereo modes.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Company founded
- Matt Fairclough founded Planetside Software in late 1999 while continuing development of Terragen.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Company headquarters
- Planetside Software LLC identifies itself as a US company based in Los Angeles, California.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Company size
- LinkedIn lists Planetside Software in the 2–10 employee range.linkedin.com · read 14 Oct 2026
- Documentation
- The official wiki is the primary Terragen 4 documentation repository and mixes clearly marked official and community-written material.docs.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Education
- Planetside offers free licenses for educational use to institutions, faculty, and students upon request with proof of current educational status.planetside.co.uk · read 8 Oct 2026
- Educational licensing
- Verified students, faculty and institutions can receive unrestricted Terragen 4 Professional licenses free for educational use, renewed yearly.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Free edition limit
- The free edition allows non-commercial use or 30 days of commercial evaluation and limits still renders to 1280 × 900.planetside.co.uk · read 8 Oct 2026
- GIS support
- Terragen provides georeferencing for raster GIS data such as DEM and aerial imagery, including automatic handling for supported files.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Import and export
- Terragen imports 3D objects and camera data, and exports terrain as heightfields or geometry in formats including TER, EXR, LWO, OBJ, and FBX.planetside.co.uk · read 8 Oct 2026
- Integrations and formats
- Terragen imports and exports FBX, OBJ, LWO, TER, EXR and common image formats, and supports camera exchange with Nuke and Maya files.planetside.co.uk · read 14 Oct 2026
- Interoperability
- Camera data can be imported or exported in FBX, Nuke CHAN, and Maya MOV formats, and Terragen can generate HDR environments for use as lighting in other renderers.planetside.co.uk · read 8 Oct 2026
- License model
- Terragen uses commercial licenses with a restricted freeware edition; it is not open-source software.en.wikipedia.org · read 14 Oct 2026
