* Instant Terra goes to a 50% discount for Black Friday. It’s now standalone perpetual desktop software, as it was recently switched away from subscription. It offers fast procedural terrain generation and real-time preview, with a new World Browser module to “download elevation data for any region of the world and generate a corresponding terrain” with isolines. I’ve been unable to find out how easily the output integrates with Vue, though the output looks fairly standard. I doubt it gives access to high-res terrains here in the UK, though at guess it may in the USA.
Might be worth $75 just to have a really easy hassle-free way to grab any terrain mesh from the real-world, though overlaying satellite imagery is not due until 2.2. The very latest version offers “a simple way to automatically refine the [downloaded] terrains and transform low-resolution terrains to high-resolution terrains”, via the addition of a new “up-scaling node”. I’m not sure how well this removes ‘stepping’ aka ‘zipper’ lines.
* Amazon’s flagship Kindle Fire 10″ tablets are now a healthy 40% off at Amazon UK. One of the most affordable ways to read digital comics, and I find it will also run Nomad Sculpt.
* Also, keep in mind that there should be a few good ‘Amazon Warehouse deals’ soon, perhaps around 9th-10th December, as hardware returned by perfectionist techies is graded and re-packed for re-sale. Some of these deals can be excellent, when something like a scratched casing or a tiny defect on a big monitor screen triggers a hefty discount.