Procedurally generated terrain textures

[Waldo]

This terrain texture is a procedurally generated image that simulates the look of a satellite/aerial photo. It is generated using some custom software I wrote, which processes digital elevation data to create the hill shading effect, along with additional datasets that give the aproximate density of trees over the entire area. Based on the tree density data, trees (conifer, hardwood and snags) are randomly distributed, complete with little shadows.

Here's a 1/16 scale version of the original. Click on it for a larger version.

Because it's all procedurally generated, I could in theory generate about any resolution I want with it, but i've found you don't gain much when you go over 8192 at least for this much land.

For comparison, here is the same area in Google Maps. More info on the project this is being used for at http://www.fsl.orst.edu/lemma/gnnviz/

[Bic-B@ll]

cool, although there appears to be only one style of tree and its very separate from the terrain. it's not noticeable at a distance, but close up, it looks like you could have just pasted them on top. some color/shade differences could make it look more natural, and lighting based on the angle/ shading from the mountains should exist. pretty neat though.

:^)

[zaphod]

this would be awesome for generating terrain and accurate textures for huge 3d skybox terrains

[Waldo]

Something I'm seriously thinking of doing is putting delta-height data in the Alpha channel for each tree, then use it for parallax mapping in a custom shader. Would really bring things alive.

The tree density data btw is generic "conifer" or "hardwood". I actually have much finer scale data (breakdown by species, by different sizes, etc.) but for this sort of high level view I don't need to get that detailed. You get more variation when you get down on the ground.

[von*ferret]

Pretty sweet script/program you wrote Waldo. And I got a kick out of the "secure undisclosed oregon location" since i know where you live

[Rick_D]

Looks very similar to they css inferno skybox terrain texture! D: