Real-Time Editing, Synthesis, and Rendering of Infinite Landscapes on GPUs

Jens Schneider, Tobias Boldte, Rüdiger Westermann
Computer Graphics and Visualization Group, Technical University Munich, Germany

Background

Recent advances in algorithms and graphics hardware have opened the possibility to render large terrain fields at interactive rates on commodity PCs. Due to these advances it is possible today to interactively synthesize artificial terrains using procedural descriptions. Our paper extends on this work by presenting a new GPU method for real-time editing, synthesis, and rendering of infinite landscapes exhibiting a wide range of geological structures. Our method builds upon the concept of projected grids to achieve near-optimal sampling of the landscape. We describe the integration of procedural shaders for multifractals into this approach, and we propose intuitive options to edit the shape of the resulting terrain. The method is multi-scale and adaptive in nature, and it has been extended towards infinite and spherical domains. In combination with geo-typical textures that automatically adapt to the shape being synthesized, a powerful method for the creation and rendering of realistic landscapes is presented.