A Practical Terrain Generation Method Using Sketch Map and Simple Parameters

Abstract

A procedural terrain generation method is presented in this paper. It uses a user-drawn sketch map, which is a raster image with lines and polygons painted by different colors to represent sketches of different terrain features, as input to control the placement of terrain features. Some simple parameters which can be easily understood and adjusted by users are used to control the generation process. To further automatically generate terrains, a mechanism that automatically generates sketches is also put forward. The method is implemented in a PC, and experiments show that terrains are generated efficiently. This method provides users a controllable way to generate terrains.