"Terragen is a work-in-progress scenery generator for Windows 95/98/NT/2000. At this stage of its development, Terragen is free for personal noncommercial use. Terragen is already capable of photorealistic results for professional landscape visualization, special effects, art and recreation."

That's a good, concise definition, and perhaps a bit of an explanation - but not the whole story. To really know what Terragen is and can do, you need to try it out, use it, find its limits, find your limits.

If you want to experience the world of Terragen through the art and craft of others before you take the plunge, jump right to the Terragen Galleries & User Sites section of the site.

To learn more about Terragen and some of the tools that are now available for use with Terragen, continue on ...
 

Terragen is free for personal use, but commercial users must register.
For details on registration, go to the Terragen registration page at Planetside
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/register.shtml

Manuals and General Help:

The Official Guide: http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/guide/

The Surface Map Guide - describes the Terragen surface map system. Contains
many examples and illustrations of the surface mapping system in use.
By Jo Meder, Planetside Software. http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/smgdl.shtml

A new Spanish translation of the User Guide is now available: http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/guide/es/

The Official Terragen Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/guide/tg_faq.html

TerraNet Another (and the first!) list of Terragen Resources by Rainer Dückerhoff
http://www.terragen.de/

Japanese translation of the Terragen User's Guide - by Yasufumi Sawanishi http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~sopan/terragen/tgguide/index.html

Tutorials:

Carol Brooksbank One of the earliest (and still active) Terragen Tutorials http://www.caroluk.org.uk/terratut/

Terragen Tutorial by Eric DeGiuli - http://individual.utoronto.ca/edegiuli/TGtut/TerragenTutMain.htm

Terragen 2 FAQ. Matt Fairclough's emails aboutTG2 in a FAQ format. http://voyage.isurf.ca/voyage_faq_tg2.html by Dan Shmeala

Courses:


Britt McCary's Terragen classes (via LVS). Syllabus for six-week online training course in Terragen

DEM (Digital Elevation Model) Tutorial. -"This is a basic guide for downloading, decompressing, and importing DEMs for use in Terragen. This process requires you have 3DEM, a program that can load, merge, and save DEMs as file formats useful to Terragen.

How To Use Seamless Data Distribution System (SDDS) - Tutorial for the use of the USGS Seamless Data.

"Seamless Data Distribution System (SDDS) (http://seamless.usgs.gov) enables a user to view and download many geospatial data layers, such as National Elevation Dataset, National Land Cover Dataset, High Resolution Orthoimagery, and many more. This tutorial is designed to guide a user through the download process.

Information about SDDS, Product Information, FAQ's, and homepage Links are accessible through the home page. Each page contains a HELP button that offers assistance and information for the corresponding page."

Also included in this tutorial is a brief explanation of what a DEM is, as well as links to where you can download them." http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/DemTutorial/ - by Michael Smith

Merging Terragen Image and Scanned Photo -
http://www.geocities.com/mcr-lad/Tutorials/PostProcessing.html..... by John Pearson

The Weird Blue Glow - http://www.timster.net/terraforma/glow.htm .... by Tim O'Donoghue

Simple Rays Tutorial - A tutorial on how to achieve nice sun rays in Terragen. By Westonmi - http://kglgraphics.net/terrawest/tuts/simplerays.htm

CWied's Tutorials Pages - includes Masks, The Cloud Mask, The Land Mask, Multi Layer Masks, The Surf Mask. The Water Mask, Masking Structures, Cloud Reflections, Ruins Using Overlays, Transparent Water, and Adding Structures to Terragen - http://cwied.virtualave.net/ The above site appears to be out of commission. See Terrabill site at http://www.terrabill.info/ for some of Cwied's tutorials.

A Terragen Rendering Benchmark site This is another benchmark - updated in real-time. Offers a lot of very good comparable results. By Karsten http://www.kk3d.de/ or directly: http://tgbench.kk3d.de/

TerraBench - A resource for Terragen performance information. Benchmarks, database functionality, frequent updates. http://terrabench.ashundar.com/ - by Oshyan Green

TerraKids Tutorial -http://www.terrabill.info Billed as a "Speedy Hands-On Terragen Tour" designed for kids - but it is actually a good review for oldtimers too! Don't miss this one! )
*(Bill Cummings has kindly offered to host TerraKids while new homes are sought for Leslie's sites. Follow the link to Tutorials)

Terragen Plugin Manual Collection In Japanese and English, a site dedicated to Terragen plugins - by Y.Shimakawa - http://www.terralab.net/tgpmanual/

Japanese Terranim Tutorial - by Yasufumi Sawanishi

Terrasight Tutorials by Bleze - Tutorials at Terrasight.net: Fog & Mist Tutorial, Glow Tutorial and a Ray Tutorial Tutorial . In German and English.http://www.Terrasight.net/

Using HDR with Terragen - by Marko Dabrovic http://www.rna.hr/tutorial01/

A series of tutorials by Frank Basinski, including
- Creating nice snowtops using overlays
- Clouds for professionals
- Riding the Sky and Diving Deep in Terragen
- The Low Beams Trick
- The Star Nebula Tutorial
http://www.basinski-net.de/start.htm

How To Include Lightning in Terragen Pictures Very detailed and well-illustrated. By Frank Basinski. http://www.basinski-net.de/tutorials/lightning/lightning_en.htm

Tutorial for "My Country" by Osamu Sugasawa This is a small tutorial about how to create the Terragen files for a winning TerraCon entry from the Fields and Farmlands contest This is a superb example of how to use Terragen to custom design an image. Note that there is no post-processing. - http://ueno.cool.ne.jp/koyo/tutorial/tutorial.html

Surface Map Tutorial in English and German http://www.martin-brunker.de by Martin Brunker

The "Bliss effect" Tutorial by Michiel de Boer http://www.mdbsite.com/tuto/bliss/

Lasershow Effect http://www.turx.com/lasershow/ by Ensar Yanar

Terragen Tips - by Helen Triantafillou - "These tips are to be used with Terragen. They have to do with things I I didn't know about and had to search and experiment to find them" If you can't find the answer to those odd Terragen problems, try here for some good tips. http://www.helensimages.com/tgtips.htm

Eric’s Terragen Tutorials Set of three tutorials in the use of SOPack for overlays and strata.by Eric Cazier http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dataslave/Tutorials.htm

Simulating Moonlight in Terragen The title says it all. - by Ben Kreunen http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/terragen/moonlight.html

Spanish Tutorial Translations of some of C-wied and other's tutorials. Browse to “tutorial translations”
http://ea-brc.netfirms.com/

Creating an animation with Campath - by Hoffmann Nicolas (3 versions)

1.French version : http://dominique.hoffmann.free.fr/tutoriel/
English version: http://dominique.hoffmann.free.fr/tutoriel/index_english.php

2.French version : http://dominique.hoffmann.free.fr/tutoriel2/
English version :http://dominique.hoffmann.free.fr/tutoriel2/index_english.php

3 French version : http://dominique.hoffmann.free.fr/tutoriel3/
English version :http://dominique.hoffmann.free.fr/tutoriel3/index_english.php

How to adjust Terragen images. Covers colour correction (curves), brightness and contrast, B&W,compressed formats and some other minor tips and hints. by Esteban A. Glas & Jean-Claude Grégoire http://ea-brc.netfirms.com/tutors/colour/aindex.htm

TerraTurk - Terragen Turkey, tutorials, free downloads and contests with awards is opened. Tutorials just written only in Turkish. Pages about contests are written in English and Turkish. Awards ( CD's and Books ) will be sent by post. We are waiting terragen lovers. http://www.terraturk.com

How to create a beach scene in Terragen - posted on Bill Cummings' Terrabill site http://www.terrabill.net/Tutorials/tut03/index.htm - by Dotthy

How to make an "overhanging" terrain image in Terragen In English and German.Follow the link to "Tutorials" http://www.terra-rium.de.vu/ - by Grosch

Waterfall tutorial Etienne Blythe's classic waterfall tutorial has a holiday home at Bill Cumming's website and home for orphaned tutorials (Terrabill) http://www.terrabill.net/Tutorials/Waterfalls/tut2.htm

-There is also a waterfall tutorial at Renderosity. .It was written for Vue D'Esprit but since the actual waterfall creationis done in PS or PSP it should be equally valid for Terragen. http://www.renderosity.com/tut.ez?Form.ViewPages=648. Reference contributed by Frank Lane.

Tutorial on "Stormy Weather" in which Jean-Claude Gregoire explains how he made the image "Stormy Weather", which was selected for the "Terragen Calendar 2005" (autumn).
In English http://www.erotic-surrealist-paintings.us/tuts/stw_e_tut.zip and French

The Joy of Terragen Video-based Terragen tutorials "How to go about starting up with Terragen, through to using the world machine, importing DEM files and more". By Bob Ross.
http://www.3d-palace.com/video.php?vid=44

Terragenweb The Italian Terragen site FAQs, tutorials, gallery listings by Gabriele Bellissima. http://www.terragenweb.it

Rain or Snow - A tutorial by Dorothea Beer. How to make rain or snow using postwork.Hosted on Bill Cummings' site Terrabill.net http://www.terrabill.net/Tutorials/tut05/ind.htm

Other Programs [Top] [TOC]

CamPath - Create animations with Terragen and this utility by Sean O'Malley http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/campath.html

Terranim - program that allows you to create smooth camera paths through a 3D landscape and generate script files that can be executed by Terragen to produce animations. -by Daniel Parnham http://terranim.ashundar.com/

Cube2cross utility make HDR panoramas out of Terragen and Sopack for any 3d
application (povray, lightwave etc.) http://www.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/ by Sean O'Malley

StereoScopic by Sean O'Malley
Stereo Movies with Terragen? Try Sean's program - two different stereo methods and is pretty flexible and easy to use--just give it a script and it'll spit out two more.to create animations that can be viewed with LCD shutter glasses. Sean highly recommends reading at least the warnings section of the documentation before attempting to use this Can be downloaded from the CamPath webpage http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/binaries/Stereo102.zip or alternate location http://www.timster.net/stereo100.zip

Tools for stereographic images. Stereoscopic image program in several variations. http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/ By Muttyan.

Forester - "A standalone program that creates a 3D landscape, allowing trees, rocks and other objects to be placed on the terrain. The final image is rendered using POV-Ray (http://www.povray.org). Can also be used for rendering 3D objects to be composited onto a Terragen image, including shadows and simple atmospheric haze. See the Forester web-site for further information.". By Stephen Dartnall http://www.dartnall.f9.co.uk/forester/main.htm

DOWN for Maintenance? Terraview - View Terragen terrains without loading Terragen. By Dwayne Heaton. http://www.vmadd.demon.co.uk/terraview.html

TerraSculpt - Create and modify Terragen terrains. By Rich Allen. http://www.ricosweb.com/default.asp?page=50

Terratweak Allows access to many exposed and hidden features of Terragen TGW files, and other "tweakable" parameters. http://tt.stevage.com. By Steve Bennett

Ter2Blend Scripter that uses Blender to add objects to Terragen images. By Guy Van Rentergem. http://home.pacbell.net/c_keith/projects/blender/misc/Terragen.html

The Virtual Terrain Project The goal of VTP is to foster the creation of tools for easily constructing any part of the real world in interactive, 3D digital form. Now reads Terragen terrain files.
By Ben Discoe. http:/vterrain.org/

Wintopo - A Raster to Vector converter (useful for converting contour maps to heightfields. There is a free version of this program at http://wintopo.com/

Bink Hi compression video codec for creating movies from Terragen http://www.radgametools.com/bnkmain.htm

Programs to integrate Terragen with 3d Max and other programs:
(Thanks to Mark Sporleder for bringing these to my attention)

TerraCamera v.0.1 written by Tomanek http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/maxint.shtml

TerraCamOut 0.9 written by Grant Adam http://members.optushome.com.au/ghra/scripts.htm

TG-Max - TG-Max is a MaxScript for 3DS Max which allows camera and lighting data to be transferred between 3D Studio Max and Terragen. http://www.darkmoon3d.com/tg-max/index.html by Mark Sporleder.

TrueSpace integration: http://tsx.uvworx.com/iotools.html

LensFX: http://www.mudder.net/genghis/lensfx/

TerraCin - plugin for Cinema 4D which will import the output of Terragen into Cinema 4D for use with other parts of the Cinema 4D applications. Donationware, by David Johnson.
http://www.movingfrontiers.org/plugins/TerraCin/terraCin.html

Terra4D was developed to make it possible to combine Cinema4D and Terragen. The plug-in makes it possible to combine a Cinema4D-scene seamlessly with a landscape rendered in Terragen to create a single image or even an animation

Multimedia convertors / translators page - nothing Terragen-specific, but there are a lot of useful file converters here - which often comes up in odd situations when working with image or other files. http://www.icdatamaster.com/multimedia.html

TerraScreen - The wallpaper which is always changing. This program uses Terragen to render the realistic landscape with actual sun position for your local position (latitude, longitude), time and real cloud conditions updated online from Yahoo! Weather. TerraScreen sets the resulting image on the your desktop as wallpaper. You may specify your own Terragen world and terrain, latitude, longitude, GMT, refresh time and other options. By Roman Shneyberg http://www.geocities.com/shneyberg

Caustics Generator "Caustics can be described as the light pattern you see at the bottom of a pool on a sunny day.This tool will let you render such caustics patterns. The rendered images can be animated and used for realtime graphics and are tileable in both space and time." http://www.lysator.liu.se/~kand/caustics/ - by Kjell Andersson.

StrataGen - a strata generator for Terragen, available in German and English with French and Spanish language packs available. http://www.jens-bringewatt.de By Jens Bringewatt

Terrascript - a web-based Javascript utility to generate animation scripts for Terragen v 0.6.26 and higher. Terrascript is made by SSJ3Gohan, Terrascript for Windows is made by Vincent. www.terrascript.cjb.net

GPU - This is a fascinating approach to rendering Terragen animations - among other uses. "GPU is a Gnutella client that allows users to share files and CPU-resources. Our objective is to develop a robust framework for distributed computing based on the peer-to-peer network Gnutella. ... Certain plug-ins extend the capabilities of client nodes and are compiled so as to take advantage of the power of the latest processors." One of those plug-ins is designed to specifically address Terragen renders on a distributed basis. According to Rene Tegel, "The plugin is still experimental and ...we are encountering issues that prevent scaling or affect user-friendlyness, therefore the current status should explicitely be regarded as 'beta'." Definitely worth a look. http://gpu.sourceforge.net/download.php

TerraConv A program for converting Terragen terrain files into TIFF files and back. Supports 16 bit color depth There are also some assorted Terragen tutorials on this page. By Pauli Lindgren. http://koti.mbnet.fi/pkl/tg/terragen.htm

Terrain Generators/ Converters/ Editors

3DEM - Terrain Visualization program by Richard Horne. Uses Digital Elevation Models and displays them in 3D. Also converts DEMs and other source files (SRTM and others) to Terragen terrains. http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/3dem.html

Global Mapper converts DEMs and other elevation data to TER for use with Terragen. Also creates excellent 3-D images with overlays, much more. Global Mapper is the commercial version of the free U.S. Geological Survey's DLGV32 viewer detailed below.

BMP2TER - http://www.krug.org.uk/
A command line / console utility by Alistair Milne for converting Windows BMP images into Terragen Terrain files.

Leveller - A terrain editor/creator/converter by Daylon Graphics
http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/

planetGenesis "planetGenesis (pG) is a [free] Java program designed to produce models of planets and landscapes.A little like Mojoworld.." .http://planetgenesis.sourceforge.net/ by David Burnett.

World Machine is a terrain heightfield generator that takes a slightly different approach than the norm. The ability to control every step of the terrain process is what makes World Machine unique among terrain synthesis tools. http://www.world-machine.com - by Stephen Schmitt

TNTLite -free, "lite" version of software for geospatial data analysis http://www.microimages.com/tntlite/

Wilbur - converts between many types of terrain data formats, terrain editor/creator. http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~jslayton/software.html

3D Exploration - 3D object viewer and converter, uses OpenGL, fast.
http://www.righthemisphere.com/company/home.htm

Genesis II - Photorealistic landscape visualization for GIS and other professional users. http://www.geomantics.com/

Landformer Pro - Terrain editor/generator uses the Terragen .ter format as it's native file format and imports data from graphics and digital terrain files. http://www.geomantics.com/landformer.htm

DLGV32 a tool for viewing DEMs, DRGs and other USGS files. One use is to overlay DRG files on DEM surface to better visualize terrains before rendering in Terragen. Written and distributed by the U.S.Geological Survey. http://mcmcweb.er.usgs.gov/viewers/dlg_view.html

GeoFrac -"GeoFrac2000 is a realistic landscape and terrain generation tool that will create and output heightfields, texture maps, 3D Polygon Meshes, and more. It's primary function is to create, sculpt and manipulate 2D heightfields using sophisticated techniques and algorithms, as well as manual modifications via grayscale painting" "Combining GeoFrac's heightfield generation and editing tools along with its nice user interface, with Terragen's rendering capabilities, you can produce some of the most incredible and impressive images of virtual worlds and 3D landscapes" - http://www.geofrac2000.com/

Terraformer . Version 1.4b, 248 kb, manual in German and English. Terrain manipulation, adds terracing and more. http://www.terradreams.de/All/TerraFormer2.zip (DOWNLOAD ONLY) You can also go to the page with this and many other Terragen related downloads: http://www.terradreams.de/All/Downloads.htm#3

Universe Image Creator a program for postprocessing Terragen images allows you to create of stars, nebula, galaxies, and more. .http://www.diardsoftware.com

Public Domain Software for Use with USGS Geographic Data free tools for data massage http://edc.usgs.gov/geodata/public.html

PCHelp's Nifty TerraServer Image Grabber - Use this handy form to generate custom images from TerraServer - automatically. This is a VERY cool app for anyone who needs a map or a photo of a location and knows the coordinates. http://www.pc-help.org/nuts-n-bolts/terra.htm

TerraMaker - A Terragen terrain generator. Documentation is in German and English, UI is in English. http://www.terraproject.tecmu.de/index_download.html - by Olaf Herfurth

TerraPainter - a program which can be used do draw terrains for Terragen. Version 2.1.0 has been released. Has a brush generator (choose the brush generator from the tools menu). http://www.kokpeter.dds.nl/TerraPainter/

TerraBrush - a small terrain editor for landscape and some objects with import and export for Terragen. Now in English. http://www.cyberfunks.de/ - by Funker

3DField a contouring surface plotting and 3D data program that runs under Microsoft Windows 95/98/2000/XP Create your own heightfields http://3dfmaps.com/

Kashmir Free software for making landscape CG or 3D maps. You can render landscape CG using USGS's DEMs, Grayscale Bitmaps and so on. Support for 3D navigation by GPS receiver, support for full-raytracing rendering and Z-Buffer rendering, & support for rendering clouds, fog, snow and mist, Support for depth of focus. In English and Japanese. This latest beta version is very good and might be of some help for Terragen users.http://www.kashmir3d.com/index-e.html By SUGIMOTO Tomohiko

Index Maps and OverViews

World Wind Excellent learning and visualization program from NASA. Zoom into features of interest worldwide from a global perspective to highly detailed LandSat images at 15 meters resolution. Some areas have data as detailed as 1 meter/pixel. Large download, but well worth it. http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/worldwind/features.html

Finding United States DEMs - a quick tutorial on how to locate DEMs and elevation data. By Richard Horne, author of 3DEM (above) http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/3dem/finddems.html

Finding places in the US by NAME -- United States Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) "The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), developed by the USGS in cooperation with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN), contains information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States." http://geonames.usgs.gov/gnishome.html

Digital Terrain Modeling and Mapping Terrain Modeling and Mapping using DEM, SDTS, DRG, DLG and DTED Data. The site offers an SDTS to .TER file translator program and a short tutorial section on Terragen. Other translators and DEM related tutorials are also offered. Excellent site by John Childs. http://www.geocities.com/digital_terrain/

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) & Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs)

USGS Seamless National Elevation Dataset - .FREE Uses BIL, ArcGrid, GeoTIFF, and GRIDFLOAT formats.Free of charge if downloaded via FTP. http://seamless.usgs.gov/. Use 3DEM or Global Mapper to convert to Terragen TERrain format.

** NEW ** How To Use Seamless Data Distribution System (SDDS) - Tutorial for the above elevation data.

"Seamless Data Distribution System (SDDS) (http://seamless.usgs.gov) enables a user to view and download many geospatial data layers, such as National Elevation Dataset, National Land Cover Dataset, High Resolution Orthoimagery, and many more. This tutorial is designed to guide a user through the download process.

Information about SDDS, Product Information, FAQ's, and homepage Links are accessible through the home page. Each page contains a HELP button that offers assistance and information for the corresponding page."

US GeoData Digital Elevation Models Fact Sheet
http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs04000.html

USGS Digital Elevation Model Data
http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/products/elevation.html

Alaska Geospatial Data Clearinghouse 15 minute (or 1:63,500 scale) coverage Digital Elevation Models (DEMS) for Alaska http://agdc.usgs.gov/data/usgs/geodata/dem/63K/

Geobase Canadian elevation data for most of Canada http://www.geobase.ca/

United States Geological Survey (USGS) - Covers the entire US. Several scales and resolutions available, many are free to download. FREE and $$$
http://edc.usgs.gov/doc/edchome/ndcdb/ndcdb.html

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) http://srtm.usgs.gov/ This data is available for most of the world in 90-meter equivalent resolution. US data available in 30 meter resolution.

According to the documentation on the FTP site:

"Version 1 of the SRTM data consists of the original Digital Elevation Models produced
by the SRTM project with data from the STS-99 mission in Feb., 2000, and delivered to
the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA.) These data are unedited and
contain spurious data points in area of low radar backscatter such as water bodies.

Version 2 is the results of a substantial editing effort by the NGA and exhibits well
defined water bodies and coastlines and the absence of spikes and wells (single pixel
errors), although some areas of missing data (‘voids’) are still present. The Version 2
directory also contains the vectorized coastline mask used by NGA in the editing, called
SRTM Water Body Data (SWBD), in shapefile format.

Version 2 is a superior product and it is recommended for most users"

Here are two ways to access this data:

1. Via clickable web map interface (International viewer, http://seamless.usgs.gov/ )

2. via FTP site

Africa & Middle-East
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/Africa

Australia
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/Australia

Eurasia
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/Eurasia

Islands
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/Islands

N.America
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/North_America

S. America
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/South_America

United States
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version1/United_States_1arcsec/1arcsec

SWBDeast SRTM Water Body Data, East - shapefile
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/SWBDeast

SWBDwest SRTM Water Body Data, West - shapefile
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/SWBDwest

SRTM30 - "SRTM30 is a near-global digital elevation model (DEM) comprising a
combination of data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, flown
in February, 2000 and the the U.S. Geological Survey's GTOPO30 data
set. It can be considered to be either an SRTM data set enhanced with
GTOPO30, or as an upgrade to GTOPO30.
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version1/SRTM30

To convert the data to TER for use in Terragen, You'll need 3DEM l or Global Mapper to convert the .HGT files.

Each file is zipped and the filename indicates the Latitude and Longitude of the lower left corner of the data e.g. N54W009.hgt.zip has a LLC at 54 degrees North and 9 degrees west - somewhere in Ireland. Each file is a 1 degree x 1 degree chunk.

SRTM files tend to be plagued by occasional "holes" so you'll need some way to fill in missing data if the shadow is in a critical area... Also, since water reflects radar quite well, there are often ocean/lake areas that show areas of wind-blown water or waves that is higher than sea level - this may require some creative editing of your terrains. I have also found Sean O'Malley's SOPack Statistical Filter (Low, 5x5) filter http://www.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/campath.html to be useful in these cases. If you use Global Mapper, you can combine SRTM30 data with the higher-resolution 90 meter data to approximate the shape of the missing data. If you use 3DEM, it has a feature that uses a "best-approximation" method to fix the holes.

GeoGratis - Source of FREE Canadian data - http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/frames.html

Ordnance Survey - Britain's national mapping agency
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland
www.osni.gov.uk/

Suirbhéireacht Ordanáis na Éireann (Ordnance Survey Ireland)
Ireland's national mapping agency
http://www.osi.ie/

Texas Natural Resources Information System - 30-meter DEMs for the state of Texas http://www.tnris.state.tx.us/DigitalData/DEMs/dems.htm

State of Washington 10-meter DEM Locator - 10 meter DEM files for the entire state http://www.reo.gov/reo/data/DEM_Files/wash.htm

State of Oregon 10-meter DEM Locator -10 meter DEM files for the entire state http://www.reo.gov/reo/data/DEM_Files/ore.htm

International List of Digital Elevation Model datasets -FREE and $$$ - This site currently has links to data on Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and others. http://www.eurogeographics.org/eng/01_about.asp

Shaded Relief Homepage by Tom Patterson, U.S. National Park Service. Nicely done page on techniques for using DEMs to create shaded relief images. Good references to DEM tools. http://www.shadedrelief.com/

The Grand Canyon Reference Project - The first phase of a larger project about the Grand Canyon. Current site is devoted to maps, images and Terragen terrain files for the Grand Canyon. Future additions will include informationon the geology, geography and human history related to the canyon. By Tim O'Donoghue

North Cascades - Terrains for Terragen- Terragen Terrains made from USGS DEM files, 3D topo map images for easier visualization of images. by Tim O'Donoghue http://www.timster.net/cascades/index.html

List of Free DRG files http://www.bianifc.org/gis_gps/gps/drgfree.html

Center For Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) - A Guide to Mostly On-Line and Mostly Free U.S. Geospatial and Attribute Data - http://www.cast.uark.edu/local/hunt/

Map Mart excellent source for 10 and 30 meter DEMs of the US - Files must be "ordered" but can then be downloaded FREE, 10 items max per order. Easy to navigate using graphic map interface. Download speed is very good. http://www.mapmart.com/

DRG Maps A USGS Business Partner specializing in Digital Cartographic Data (Digital Raster Graphics). DRG Maps offers DRG data as well as a wide array of other products by National Geographic and Global Mapper. This company has full sets of DRGs (digital topo maps) for very good prices. http://www.drgmaps.com

Advanced Topographic Development and Images (ATDI) at http://www.atdi.com/download.htm. Another alternative source of DEMs of the world at 500 meter resolution.

The Best DEM of American West. Very nice display of DEM images, 3D terrain image and terragen images side-by-side. Some TER and TGW files available. In English and Japanese. by Y. Sawanishi

NASA Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Entire Surface of Mars
http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html

NASA Mars Digital Terrain Models (Surface of Mars)
http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/viking/mdim.html

NOAA'S Digital Elevation Models of the Main Hawaiian Islands - Each island in one big file. Digital Elevation Models for the Main Eight Hawaiian Islands derived from USGS 7.5' Quads. (click on an island to download DEM) Also bathymetric data (ocean depth). http://biogeo.nos.noaa.gov/products/mapping/dems/

I.N.S.I.D.E. Idaho Elevation data (10-meter and other), DRGs, and other GIS data for the entire state.http://inside.uidaho.edu/default.htm

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TerraServer Cooperative effort between Microsoft, the USGS and others. Great site for exploring, also useful to get overview of areas for Terragen scenes.FREE download of limited data
http://www.terraserver.com/

PCHelp's Nifty TerraServer Image Grabber - Use this handy form to generate custom images from TerraServer - automatically. This is a VERY cool app for anyone who needs a map or a photo of a location and knows the coordinates. http://www.pc-help.org/nuts-n-bolts/terra.htm

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas - excellent collection of online maps. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/

MapFinder (online)There is now an online version that has most of the functionality of the CD version.Requires a simple registration process.http://www.usgsquads.com/mapfinder.html

California Digital Raster Graphics Experimental Site distributing DRGs developed at the Teale Data Center. Great detail and available FREE. http://www.gis.ca.gov/  

Terragen The main Terragen discussion list All official announcements from Planetside will be posted on this list. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/terragen

Terragenfriends The discussion group for all your 'off-topic' Terragen chat. An open forum where all are welcome and topics unrestricted. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/terragenfriends

TerragenGalleries Mailing list for posting announcements of new Terragen galleries, additions or updates to Terragen galleries and discussions related to idividual images.

TGPGuiLibAnnounce This announcement list is for keeping users of the TGPGuiLib, which provides cross platform interface services for Terragen plugins, informed of updates and the like. The homepage for the TGPGuiLib can be found here

WaterWorksAnnounce This is an announcement list for WaterWorks, which is a set of water effects plugins for Terragen, an excellent near photorealistic landscape generator/renderer. The website for WaterWorks can be found here.

TerragenTerrains This group will focus on the distribution of terrains of interest to users of Terragen

TG-Max List - General discussion forum for users of TG-Max (Terragen 3DS Max convertor). Problems, suggestions, tips,or anything related to TG-Max can be found here. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TG-Max/

FEOAnnounce An announcement list for users of For Export Only, a set of terrain export plugins for Terragen.

Terranimation Group dedicated to Terragen's wonderful animation possibilities. TG generated, post-processed and compression discussions

Terragen Exchange This forum is intended to give the Terragen community a central database for the exchange of computer parts and accessories. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tgexchange

French mailing list for Terragen - by Olivier Cousinou http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Planeteterragen/

Spanish mailing list for Terragen Grupo dedicado a Terragen en español http://groups.yahoo.com/group/espanol_terragen/

Terragen Worlds - share Terragen World Files http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Terragen_Worlds

Forester Add trees to your Terragen images - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Forester/

World Machine Mailing list for the procedural terrain generator of the same name http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldmachine

Terranuts A small but growing Terragen community featuring discussion forums and an extensive and varied gallery. http://www.terranuts.com by Steve Taylor

Ashundar Terragen Community - Ashundar offers forums, contests, galleries, tutorials, surface maps, terrains, and other downloads. http://ashundar.com/

Terragenpospro - Taking images rendered in Terragen by Matt Fairclough to another level through post processing. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/terragenpospro/

Google Terragen Group - "Google Terragen · A place for people who use and abuse the scenery generator; Terragen." http://groups.google.com/group/Terragen