Planetside Software
Planetside Software develops Terragen, a photorealistic 3D environment rendering platform used by major VFX studios, game developers, VR creators, and individual artists. Founded in 1998, the privately held company sells perpetual licenses, subscriptions, and cloud access.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1998
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Planetside Software does
Planetside Software is a privately held, founder-led software company founded in 1998 by Matt Fairclough and headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It develops and sells Terragen, a photorealistic 3D environment design and rendering platform purpose-built for natural environments — terrains, skies, clouds, atmospheres, and planetary-scale scenes. Terragen's proprietary technology combines a full-planet model, hybrid micropolygon and ray tracing rendering, physically-based volumetric atmospheres (including Rayleigh/Mie scattering and ozone absorption), procedural terrain generation, and a node-based shader network editor, with cross-platform support for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The software is used for visual effects in more than 30 feature films and major TV productions, and is relied upon by leading VFX studios including Digital Domain, Industrial Light & Magic, Weta Digital, MPC, and Scanline VFX, as well as game developers (e.g., 343 Industries for Halo 5), stop-motion studios (LAIKA), VR creators, advertising agencies, and documentary producers.
The company's business model is product-led, anchored by a free non-commercial edition and free educational licensing that funnels users toward paid tiers. Revenue is generated through perpetual software licenses and monthly subscriptions for Terragen 4 Professional (with 'indie' pricing introduced in November 2023 at $199 perpetual or $10/month), supplemented by revenue-share from cloud workstation rentals via StratusCore and ecosystem services through render farm partner Pixel Plow. Distribution is direct-to-customer via the company's website (planetside.co.uk), supported by a multi-channel marketing and community presence including forums, Discord, YouTube, Twitter/X, Facebook, and Instagram.
A complementary GPU-accelerated product, Terragen Sky (in Early Access since December 2023), extends the company's roadmap into simplified sky and cloud authoring with a 'Sky Paint' workspace, with cross-product interoperability added in the December 2024 Terragen 4.8 release. The company has no disclosed external funding, no disclosed headcount, and no revenue disclosure, and operates as Planetside Software LLC, a California limited liability company.
Planetside Software firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Planetside Software
- Legal name
- Planetside Software LLC
- Website
- https://planetside.co.uk
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1998
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Planetside Software develops Terragen, a photorealistic 3D environment rendering platform used by major VFX studios, game developers, VR creators, and individual artists. Founded in 1998, the privately held company sells perpetual licenses, subscriptions, and cloud access.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Planetside Software industry classification
Industry- Product category
- 3D Rendering Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Allied To Motion Picture Distribution (7829)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Cloud Rendering & Compute for Post/VFX/Animation (render farms, burst compute) (MPAHANAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Virtual Production & LED Volume Services (Stage Ops, ICVFX, Real-Time Camera/Tracking) (MPADAHAB), Stereo 3D VFX & Conversion (Stereoscopy, Depth, Reprojection) (MPAHABAJ)
Keywords
Where Planetside Software is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Planetside Software business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Software License Sales (Perpetual): Planetside Software sells perpetual licenses for Terragen 4 Professional, allowing customers to own the software indefinitely. The company introduced 'indie' pricing in November 2023, dramatically lowering the entry price for individual artists and small studios. Upgrade pricing is available for returning customers who previously purchased older versions.
- Subscription Licensing: Terragen 4 Professional is available at a monthly subscription rate of $10/month, providing an alternative to the perpetual license for users who prefer ongoing access without a large upfront investment.
- Free Non-Commercial Edition: A free version of Terragen 4 is offered for non-commercial use, serving as a product-led growth funnel. It drives adoption among students, hobbyists, and prospective professional users while maintaining an upgrade pathway to paid editions.
- Educational Licensing: Free educational licenses are provided for students and academic institutions, cultivating future professional users and expanding the software's presence in academic curricula.
- Cloud Workstation Rental (Partner Revenue Share): Through the StratusCore partnership, Terragen Professional can be rented by the hour on cloud virtual workstations. Planetside receives revenue share from these partner rental transactions, providing a usage-based ancillary revenue stream.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free Non-Commercial Edition |
| Subscription | Monthly | Indie Monthly Subscription |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Indie Perpetual License |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Professional Perpetual License (Standard) |
| Freemium | Multi-year contract | Educational License |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Cloud Rental via StratusCore |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels14 records
Planetside Software product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Planetside Software develops and sells Terragen, a photorealistic 3D environment design and rendering platform used for creating realistic natural environments — including terrains, skies, clouds, atmospheres, water, and planetary-scale scenes — for visual effects in film, television, games, VR, advertising, and documentaries. The company offers Terragen 4 as a perpetual license or monthly subscription, with a free non-commercial edition and a free educational license program, and is developing Terragen Sky, a GPU-accelerated sky and cloud rendering application currently in early access.
Product overview
Planetside Software's core offering is Terragen 4, a professional photorealistic 3D environment design and rendering software. The product line consists of Terragen 4 as the main platform (available in Free, Professional, and Professional with Animation tiers) and Terragen Sky, a newer GPU-based sky rendering application in Early Access. The Terragen 4 platform is built around a node-based shader network system for ultimate control over terrains, atmospheres, clouds, lighting, and object distributions. A companion render farm integration is available through official partner Pixel Plow, and cloud workstation access is provided through StratusCore.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Terragen: Photorealistic 3D environment design and rendering software - the company's primary software product for creating realistic natural environments, used in film, TV, games, and VR production.
- Terragen Sky
Products and services
- Terragen 4 Photorealistic 3D environment design and rendering software for film, TV, games, and VR professionals. A hybrid micropolygon and ray tracing renderer optimized for large displacements and very large landscapes, supporting procedural terrain generation, volumetric clouds, physically-based atmosphere with global illumination, georeferencing of GIS data, node-based shader networks, instancing for billions of polygons, and animation of environmental parameters. Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux in Free Non-Commercial and Professional editions.
- Terragen Sky A GPU-accelerated sky and cloud rendering application in early access, designed to complement Terragen 4. Features a 'Sky Paint' workspace enabling simplified cloud creation and modification via paint strokes. Aimed at environment artists and VFX professionals who need realistic skies and clouds with a streamlined, GPU-based workflow.
Quantifiable outcome
- Terragen has been used for visual effects in more than 30 feature films and numerous major TV productions
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Planetside Software
Customer profileNamed customers20 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Planetside Software technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability3 records
Feature12 records
Planetside Software partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Pixel PlowcorePixel Plow is the official render farm partner of Planetside Software, providing dedicated high-speed distributed rendering services optimized for Terragen. They have supported Terragen from version 2 through current releases, working closely with Planetside to ensure full feature support. Pixel Plow offers low-cost rendering starting at 1¢/Ghz-hr, making animated rendering affordable. They provide a dedicated render farm application with dynamic cost estimation, automatic frame download, and encrypted data transfer. Official partnership status announced September 23, 2016.
- StratusCorecoreStratusCore offers cloud virtual workstations pre-loaded with Terragen Professional, enabling users to rent Terragen by the hour without purchasing a license. This provides a try-before-you-buy pathway for prospective professional users and a flexible rental option for studios that prefer not to make perpetual purchases. Users create a free account and connect to GPU-accelerated workstations with Terragen pre-installed.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Planetside Software competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Maxon (Cinema 4D / Redshift):
- Autodesk (Arnold / 3ds Max / Maya): Autodesk bundles Arnold as the default renderer across Maya and 3ds Max, which together are the industry-standard 3D packages in the same VFX and game studios that use Terragen. Their bundled default-renderer model is a structural competitive threat.
- SideFX (Houdini): SideFX develops Houdini, a comprehensive 3D/VFX software used by the same major studios (ILM, Weta, MPC) for environment creation, procedural generation, and rendering. Houdini includes its own renderer (Karma) and competes for the same VFX environment workflow budget that Terragen targets.
Direct peers
- Pixar (RenderMan): RenderMan is Pixar's physically-based renderer widely used in feature film VFX and animation. It directly competes with Terragen for rendering work in the same studios (ILM, MPC, Scanline) and on similar natural/atmospheric environment shots.
- Chaos (V-Ray): Chaos develops V-Ray, a leading photorealistic rendering engine integrated into 3ds Max, Maya, Houdini, and other DCC tools. It is used in the same VFX, archviz, and design visualization pipelines that Planetside targets with Terragen.
- OTOY (Octane Render): OTOY's Octane Render is a GPU-accelerated unbiased renderer used for photorealistic environments, archviz, and VFX — directly comparable to Terragen's GPU-friendly rendering path and competing for similar freelance artist and indie customer budgets.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Planetside Software social profiles
Digital presencePlanetside Software financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Planetside Software leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Planetside Software funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Planetside Software M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Planetside Software
What does Planetside Software do?
Planetside Software develops and sells Terragen, a photorealistic 3D environment design and rendering platform used for creating realistic natural environments — including terrains, skies, clouds, atmospheres, water, and planetary-scale scenes — for visual effects in film, television, games, VR, advertising, and documentaries. The company offers Terragen 4 as a perpetual license or monthly subscription, with a free non-commercial edition and a free educational license program, and is developing Terragen Sky, a GPU-accelerated sky and cloud rendering application currently in early access.
Is Planetside Software a public or private company?
Planetside Software is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Planetside Software founded?
Planetside Software was founded in 1998. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Planetside Software based?
Planetside Software is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Planetside Software make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Software License Sales (Perpetual) is the primary driver. The others are subscription Licensing, free Non-Commercial Edition, educational Licensing and cloud Workstation Rental (Partner Revenue Share).
Who are Planetside Software's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Maxon (Cinema 4D / Redshift), Autodesk (Arnold / 3ds Max / Maya) and SideFX (Houdini). Direct peers are Pixar (RenderMan), Chaos (V-Ray) and OTOY (Octane Render).
Does Planetside Software have an API?
No public API is recorded for Planetside Software.
What industry is Planetside Software in?
Planetside Software's product category is 3D Rendering Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAHANAF, Cloud Rendering & Compute for Post/VFX/Animation (render farms, burst compute), with a secondary code of MPADAHAB, Virtual Production & LED Volume Services (Stage Ops, ICVFX, Real-Time Camera/Tracking). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7829.