You can modify the height of individual points in the wireframe:
- Right-click on a point to select it.
- Press
[N]to increase its height by 1. - Press
[B]to decrease its height by 1. - Press
[V]to reset its height to 0.
This feature allows for real-time terrain modifications, making adjustments intuitive and interactive.
And since editing points one by one isn't exactly fun, you can also select multiple points by holding Left Control and Right-Clicking.
But why limit ourselves to just editing point heights?? Press [T] to enter Edit Mode, where you can paint and modify terrain heights dynamically!
Want to see it in action? Watch the YouTube video in high quality: Watch here
-
Sliders
- Intensity:
- 100% applies the selected color (OR raises/lowers the point by 10, OR flattens it to 0).
- 50% applies the selected color with 50% opacity (OR raises/lowers the point by 5, OR flattens it to 50% of its current height).
- etc.
- Brush Radius:
- Adjusts the brush size for painting/editing larger or smaller areas. You can also modify it with
CTRL + MOUSE UP/DOWN.
- Adjusts the brush size for painting/editing larger or smaller areas. You can also modify it with
- Intensity:
-
Colors
- Click on a color to select it. The brush size indicator will display the selected color.
-
Point Height Adjustments
- UP: Increases point height based on intensity.
- DOWN: Decreases point height based on intensity.
- FLATTEN: Brings the point towards height 0, depending on intensity.
-
Save
- Enter a filename and save your work (folder paths are allowed, but the field has a character limit).
Another major feature! Creating maps manually can be tedious, so why not add procedural generation?
The key element here is Perlin noise:
There are different types of Perlin noise—here are some examples.
If you want to understand how Perlin noise is generated, check out procedural_generation/gen_perlin_noise.c, or read this Wikipedia article for a clear and simple explanation.
There isn't a single "correct" method, but here's how I approached it.
To generate the map, I first create four Perlin noise layers:
- Global height map – Defines mountains, oceans, and plains.
- Temperature map – Influences biome distribution.
- Humidity map – Affects vegetation and terrain types.
- Surface variation map – Adds small terrain details.
Based on the first three layers, I determine the biome. If the global height indicates an ocean, the temperature and humidity decide between these four ocean biomes:
The same applies to plains:
And for mountains:
Merging all these layers results in something like this:
To make maps even more dynamic, I implemented rivers:
- Rivers start in the mountains and follow the slope until they reach an ocean or lake.
With all these elements combined, the generated maps look great! Each seed produces a unique world, and running the program twice with the same seed will generate exactly the same map.
