Competition?

Try the demo before plopping down any money. (This goes for any of the competitors as well)

Two other similar products I know of are MapZone, a free program: http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/
It's a very different sort of program, it was been designed to be possible to generate the textures much more quickly than filterforge so I find the quality to be lacking a bit. It's also more complex as it's more of an industry program.

The other is Genetica, I don't know a whole lot about it but I did try it out for a while, it's closer to filterforge in terms of usage but a lot of things in it I didn't like.
http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/genetica.htm

What it ultimately comes down to though is what are you planning to use it for?

If you're going to actually generate new filters yourself, you ought to try getting a few good ones onto the library and then you can earn the program for free. If you do purchase, I highly recommend getting the versions that let you use the filter editor, I find that a lot of time the filters in the library need a few tweaks to run as I'd like them to.

Here is a list of a few more [ I don't think it's been updated for a while ] Texture generators

You can get 90 days trial all up as a learning asset is the ability to open filters you like, learn how they work, use snippets, the Wiki Does and Don't and Filter Forge is very user friendly. There are many real world texture that no one has done yet so a bit of research to find ones not done. Don't be intimidated by the fact there is over 5000 filter many are suboptimal/uninspired/variants/useless filters [ and of course there are excellent filters as well ] - check out Editors picks and High Usage filters to see what is inspired and popular - there are many authors that are very helpful in suggesting solutions to filter building question if you post in the forums, it is well in reach to get HU's and the rewards

No No No quantity is not it, Quality is what it is about, polish them up to work properly, get feed back and help if you need it, put 6 to ten controls in and make filter you think people will use, you only need 3 Hu's to get the program.

I agree.....alot of people mistakenly think that it's in the number of filters.....I should know......I was one of them.....

Fewer better-quality filters have a much better chance at getting high usage rankings than alot more lower-quality filters......

The most important thing is coming up with filter concepts that people will use. The best test is that if you yourself could use it, then it's highly likely that others will too.....

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KGtheway2B wrote: some decent "generic sci-fi panels" and "metal" filters that look like the stuff you usually make in photoshop I guarantee you'll get the 3 HU's. People like the sci-fi stuff and will apparently use them even if sub-standard.

Kg I think it has to be pointed out that your filter works properly [ I don't see any vertical tiling issues ], the maps are right and even though it's sci-fi it has a functional reality to it, where I think reality [ even in a surreal world ] is the key