Scenery generator

A scenery generator refers to software used to create landscape images, 3D models, and animations. These programs often use procedural generation to generate the landscapes. Basic elements of landscapes created by scenery generators include terrain, water, foliage, and clouds.

Most scenery generators are able to create basic heightmaps in order to simulate the variation of elevation in basic terrain. Common techniques include Simplex noise, fractals, or the Diamond-Square Algorithm, which are able to generate 2-dimensional heightmaps. However, cliffs and caves, due to their 3-dimensional nature, cannot be created using basic heightmap techniques, and are created by a variety of alternative methods. Bodies of water have their own distinct behavior, and form lakes, rivers, and oceans. They are either created separately as a unique aspect of the scenery, or are computed from existing elevations in the heightmap. Vegetation may also be simulated on top of the generated terrain, with the goal of achieving a natural landscape. Features such as trees or bushes are typically generated using L-systems or fractals, due to featuring a generic structure. Clouds and other atmospheric effects are featured in scenery generators less often, and are created using different applications of fractals and noise.

In addition to procedural methods, scenery generators such as Grome may also allow for users to manually edit terrain features, often according to sets of rules. A small number of software packages that do not generate terrain are often specialized to create specific aspects of it. Speed Tree, for example, is used to create only vegetation, while CityEngine specializes in creating realistic buildings and infrastructure.

Scenery generators are commonly used in movies, animations and video games. For example, Industrial Light & Magic used E-on Vue to create the fictional environments for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. In such live-action cases, a 3D model of the generated environment is rendered and blended with live-action footage. Scenery generated by the software may also be used to create completely computer-generated scenes. In the case of animated movies such as Kung-Fu Panda, the raw generation is assisted by hand-painting to accentuate subtle details. Environment elements not commonly associated with landscapes, such as or ocean waves have also been handled by the software.

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