This skybox texture tutorial demonstrates how to setup and output 6 textures using Terragen.
Planetside Software [ http://www.planetside.co.uk/ ]
* Terragen is copyrighted by M.P.Fairclough, Planetside Software
First, this tutorial will not teach you how to create landscapes using Terragen. Instead the focus here is using Terragen to create 6 images to make a skybox. For further information on the intricacies of Terragen, consult the official manual at Planetside Software's website.
When you first launch Terragen you should see two windows "Rendering Control" and "Landscape". Generally you would use the "Landscape" window to generate various types of landscape, but we are going to ignore this window.
First in the "Rendering Control" window, move the "Detail" slider at least once to the right. This will increase the rendering quality of the images we're going to output. In the two text fields for "Image Size" set both "Width" and "Height" to 256 pixels. Click the "Camera Settings..." button and set the "Zoom/Magnification" field to 1. In as close to the center as possible, click in the black area that displays a top view of our camera angle. This will position our camera near the center of our landscape. Don't worry if it's not exact.
Now there are three text fields for the "Camera Orientation". Set these to 0 for "head", 0 for "pitch" and 0 for "bank". This will be the settings for our front texture. Click the "Render Image" button. Terragen will create a new window and render that view. When it's done, save that image titled "front" as a .bmp file.
Next change the three "Camera Orientation" fields to 90 for "head", 0 for "pitch" and 0 for "bank". This will be the settings for our right texture. Click the "Render Image" button. Terragen will create a new window and render that view. When it's done, save that image titled "right" as a .bmp file.
Again change the three "Camera Orientation" fields to 180 for "head", 0 for "pitch" and 0 for "bank". This will be the settings for our back texture. Click the "Render Image" button. Terragen will create a new window and render that view. When it's done, save that image titled "back" as a .bmp file.
Last for the side textures, change the three "Camera Orientation" fields to 270 for "head", 0 for "pitch" and 0 for "bank". This will be the settings for our left texture. Click the "Render Image" button. Terragen will create a new window and render that view. When it's done, save that image titled "left" as a .bmp file.
Now for our top and bottom textures. Change the three "Camera Orientation" fields to 0 for "head", 90 for "pitch" and 0 for "bank". This will be the settings for our top texture. Click the "Render Image" button. Terragen will create a new window and render that view. When it's done, save that image titled "top" as a .bmp file.
Finally, change the three "Camera Orientation" fields to 0 for "head", -90 for "pitch" and 0 for "bank". This will be the settings for our bottom texture. Click the "Render Image" button. Terragen will create a new window and render that view. When it's done, save that image titled "bottom" as a .bmp file.
That's it! Pretty easy.
Here is a quick summary of the camera settings:
front [ 0, 0, 0 ]
right [ 90, 0, 0 ]
back [ 180, 0, 0 ]
left [ 270, 0, 0 ]
top [ 0, 90, 0 ]
bottom [ 0, -90, 0 ]
