We could look into that, definitely. At a guess, there shouldn't be any technical reasons that couldn't be done.

The coverage is global, but obviously with varying levels of detail depending on the area. For the US and Europe the coverage is very good. For other areas, urban will have better resolution.

All the data is retrieved from online WMS and WMTS servers. Which server is used depends on the area, and users are able to connect to their own custom server (for example, if a you have a paid service with a GIS imagery provider). The tool does not include any dataset directly, but it connects the user to a 'recommended' server based on the area of interest (and again, you can choose to connect to any server you want by choosing the 'Custom' option). The list of recommended servers include NASA, USGS, Discomap EEA, Terrestris, EOX, ArcGIS Online, and others. (Note it does not utilize Google or Bing maps; though those maps are of high quality, they also come with too many restrictions.)

I know this is a bit of an old post, but we at Twilight Render wanted to let you know that after a lot of hard work we are bringing satellite and terrain back to SketchUp Make through Twilight Render Pro and the Terrain Tools AddOn package. We've posted more about it here https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=80%26amp;t=68220 or you can visit our website announcement here: https://www.twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10%26amp;t=5861

We hope this provides a useful workflow for all SketchUp users who have been missing their terrain since May!

When the 5 year agreement between Google and Trimble expired, leaving SketchUp Make users without a way to download satellite imagery and terrain, it left a pretty painful hole in a lot of users' workflow. It has been discussed here at SketchUcation and is pretty obvious to anyone who has tried to use the feature in the last few months!

As we have been expanding Twilight Render to bring in new features, and had already added a Terrain editing tool, we wanted to do something about bringing satellite and elevation data back to SketchUp. It's taken a little while but we have released Twilight Render V2.10 with a major update to our Terrain Tools AddOn that brings satellite and terrain back to SketchUp (and all from publicly available datasources!).

You can see it on our homepage (https://www.twilightrender.com), our announcement on our user forum and read all about it in our updated Terrain Tools Tutorial.

For those of you unfamiliar with Twilight Render, we are an affordable rendering plugin for SketchUp, have been around for over 8 years, and are continuously developing and improving our product. The Terrain Tool editing tool requires a license for Twilight Render Pro and a purchase of the Terrain Tool AddOn package.

@ntxdave said:

If I have the Hobby 2.5 installed and I purchase a pro license, will this installer get me the correct upgrade or will I need to do something different?

Yes, this installer will replace any previous V2 install, Hobby or Pro. This is the only one you should need to get running. (BTW, I just fixed your email address for you license; you should have received an email with your license info.)

@solo said:

Just curious as I am no longer a Twilight user, does it use GPU now? I was wondering about animation render times.

It does not. The Kerkythea engine has not been updated to use the GPU in any way. Animation render times are generally better than static but you sacrifice some quality in terms of global illumination.

Along those lines, I think were are going to try to push out some new render presets for animation to help get the best render times. If and when we do, those will be posted on our user forum.

@pilou said:

This is a patch or a complete program ?

It is the complete installer (we don't do patches; the installer is not big enough to need that). Just download and install over the top of your existing version. It will not affect your license in any way (it will automatically detect any existing V2 Pro license).

Here are the x86 and x64 Windows installers for Twilight Render (no OSX yet).

With Twilight Render installed, the option to render with Twilight Render will show up. However, you have to have a Pro license for Twilight Render or you will get a "This feature requires a Pro license." message.

Otherwise, it works just like the other video render methods. You do need to set up the render method, size, post-pro settings, etc. in the Twilight Render editor before starting the video render.

If you have any questions, you can post here or over at the Twilight Render forum (http://www.TwilightRender.com/phpBB3).

x64 http://www.twilightrender.com/public_data/downloads/Prerelease/twilight_win64_V2_Pro.exe
x86 http://www.twilightrender.com/public_data/downloads/Prerelease/twilight_win32_V2_Pro.exe

Here is the forklift demo rendered in Twilight Render with SketchUp screenshot overlay. I believe support for Twilight Render animation rendering should be in the next version ( > 1.0v) We will post soon an installer (for Windows at first) for Twilight Render V2 Pro that supports Animator inter-operation for beta testers to try it out (this will be a Pro feature). Again, it will require both an update from Animator and TWR, which should be available pretty soon.

Yes, Twilight Render V2.5 is available. The Pro version is a free update for all licensed V2 Pro users (but there are some improvements for Hobby users too!). You can find all about it on our website (http://www.TwilightRender.com) and our user forum (http://www.TwilightRender.com/phpBB3).

Animator inter-operation is planned for. While it may not be available immediately upon Animator's public release, we hope to follow soon after.