terrain software?

[lawrence.hagy]

Is there any good options for terrain generation other than world machine?

[davide445]

Hi @lawrence.hagy as a newbie myself I tested World Creator and Gaea.

Both are reasonably priced, WC GPU based so fast, packed with ready assets, layer based, even if (at experts opinion) not refined enough for sophisticated results. Gaea very good but slower, both node and layer based depending from the preferred workflow.

Can be used together drafting in WC and refining in Gaea.

Even more professional but expensive Terragen, node based. Not sure how is working with realtime engines.

Edited August 2, 2019 by davide445

[demostenes]

For serious work only World Machine. We ve been trying all tools on the market and there are hidden showstoppers in everything else.

[romain.janil]

indeed WM coupled with Houdini and FME are best solutions, either for geolocated work or not.

[davide445]

Returning on the topic, this time with a related question on my side, what are the most useful low cost sources where is possible to download high res heightmaps, albedo maps and buildings shape of Europe.

And also what tool can be used to retrieve albedo high res tiles, without manual and unreliable work.

For the editing of terrains I think previous answers already give an idea, but I think it's also interesting to know more about the sources and their management working on a small budget.

Edited September 25, 2019 by davide445

[razvan.b]

TerreSculptor

http://www.demenzunmedia.com/home/terresculptor/

[davide445]

Thanks @razvan.b interesting to know, in the meantime I have anyway adopted Houdini that apart many other capabilities does come also with a very capable terrain system.

[demostenes]

Even after some time, only way to go is WM (I ve partially solved its CPU dependency by buying more powerfull CPU). So still valid what I wrote in 2019. If you want simple one theme terrain MAYBE WorldCreator is starting to be usable, but not for mixing more clima types together and working with imported height maps (must for custom shaped terrains).

Edited April 12, 2020 by demostenes