Matt Fairclough

Graphics software engineer, artist, and creator of @Terragen.

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@QuantumV3 @Jonathan_Blow If the NN is small enough to eval in a fraction of a ms (yes, this is possible), it can also be trained at runtime in response to each player. That opens up some interesting possibilities.

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@Arcanous98 @yiningkarlli @seb_spe @adrian_jarabo @simesgreen @BozicAljaz @PiotrDidyk This is the way

[Planetside Software @terragen]

Terragen Newsletter:
- Sky Paint is available for Terragen Sky
- Terragen 4.8 released
- What's in the Pipeline

https://t.co/BlZvW3LRhy

[Planetside Software @terragen]

Terragen 4.8 is here:
• Sky Paint
• Render with >64 threads
• Sticky World Space for deforming meshes
• Export heightfields to 16-bit TIFF and RAW, up to 32k resolution
• Erode faster
• Cloud UI faster
• Renderlayer CLI override
• Bug fixes and more
Continued...🧵

[Planetside Software @terragen]

New builds of Terragen Sky and Terragen 4 just landed...

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@FreyaHolmer I think statements using clockwise or counterclockwise around an axis can be ok as long as it’s stated which direction we are looking down the axis. But that omission seems way too common.

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@GrahamTG Love the colour palette.

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@biovf Sorry, I couldn’t resist 😄

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@ogatramastef GPU rendering is in development, but Terragen only uses CPU for rendering right now. https://t.co/DN2yZXMAMH

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

All the power of Terragen Professional at "Indie" prices!

We've introduced a new tiered pricing structure to make Terragen Professional more affordable for individuals small companies.

Starting at $10/month or $199 for perpetual.

https://t.co/dMGoUEI8LT

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@andrewpprice Portability of assets? Height maps need a height scale parameter, whereas normal maps are fully descriptive as long as you know which coordinate system they’re designed for. Which is more portable?

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@aviel08 EXR output is 16-bit float or 32-bit float. Radiance HDR is a different kind of encoding (8-bit RGB with an exponent).

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

Terragen 4.7 Release.

- Terrain exporter improvements
- VDB exporter improvements
- Radiance HDR output (good for Unreal skyboxes etc.)
- Multi-channel and multi-part EXR output
- RPC/scripting capabilities in the Free edition
- Indie prices

https://t.co/mo35f26kOS

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

... and we also released Terragen 4.7
https://t.co/HKYdmxfIjl

[Planetside Software @terragen]

Terragen 4.7 Release.

- Terrain exporter improvements
- VDB exporter improvements
- Radiance HDR output (good for Unreal skyboxes etc.)
- Multi-channel and multi-part EXR output
- RPC/scripting capabilities in the Free edition
- Indie prices

https://t.co/m3uAbqpNOR

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@chriskwallis … but we are not realtime yet, so I don’t know how useful this is.

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@chriskwallis To solve this without affecting the mean energy (i.e. clamping is a no go) Terragen does something we call “anti-aliasing bloom”. It’s a wider filter (~6 pixels IIRC) with high pow falloff. Unnoticable on non-bright pixels. But it might require a subpixel buffer to be practical.

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

@grumpygiant I hope so Richard!

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

We are skirting the event horizon.

As soon as AI agents or multi-agent systems can reason about their own source code or the source code of other AIs well enough to make useful improvements to themselves, AI will accelerate even more quickly.
(1/3)

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

The sci-fi excitement factor makes it even more likely to occur. We don’t yet know how to stop pursuing this or make it safe enough.

The event horizon is foamy, though. Humans are still in the loop, for a while at least. How do we stay in the loop for as long as possible?
(3/3)

[Matt Fairclough @cloudsinmytea]

When I was younger I thought big corporations would make that step. Now it seems equally likely to be a bedroom coder.

Surely it’s being attempted right now. People will be assigning AI agents this very task.

This is exciting but the most dangerous threat to our future.
(2/3)