Realistic Computer Generated Landscapes

Ever see landscapes on your computer and wonder where that place is? Well, it may not have ever existed. With the use of computer generated technology landscapes both on Earth and elsewhere are easy to create.

This tutorial gives very basic and general instruction only. Feel free to click and change your terrain and experiment as you see fit. This is the best way to learn!

Terragen is a free software program for Windows that allows the user to make landscapes with ease. With some practice and a little familiarity over the controls you can create places that you have never been and have never existed. With some more work and a little reading of the tutorials you can create whole worlds with just the click of a mouse.

First, go to the Terragen web site that I've included in the resources section. Download and install Terragen. The process is essentially as easy as any software is to install in Windows.

Now that you have Terragen up and running, let's have a brief look at the controls. When the main screen opens up, two smaller tool windows open up by default as well. These are Landscape and Rendering Controls. Also, on the left hand side, are a variety of icons that allow for control of lighting, water, atmosphere, etc.

If you click on the Landscape window on "Generate Terrain" Terragen will create an entire scene for you at random. After clicking on Generate Terrain, another smaller window will pop up. This allows more specifics on how to generate your world. If, however, you are keeping it basic and just want to see how Terragen works, click, again, on "Generate Terrain" in the smaller window and a terrain will be created. You may now close out this smaller window. You should now be back at the main Terragen window with the two aforementioned windows opened.

Now that you have some type of terrain made, let's have a look at what it is. In the Rendering Controls window, slide the "Detail" slider all the way to the right so we can see what type of picture would be created. Then click on "Render Preview."

Congratulations! You've just created your own little landscape world. But what to do now?

What if you want to add water? Click on the small icon on the left hand side that looks like waves (if you let your cursor hover over the icons, each will show what it is for). Now that you have the "Water" window open, note the default sea level (-300m. I believe). To raise the sea level in Terragen is much simpler than in real life: simply type in a higher level. For example, enter 20 here.

Now click on "Update Maps" in the "Water" window, then close out the water window.

Now click back on "Render Preview." You've now flooded the little mountainous area that you created before, giving it a small lake.

What if you want to change where the camera angle is? The most expedient (but not most specific) way is to go to the little window in "Rendering Controls" that has a bird's eye view of your terrain, right next to the "Camera Settings" button. If you click in this little view you can change the location of the camera. Normal click moves the camera and "right click" changes the camera angle. You can click and drag or right-click and drag as you see fit.

Periodically you can click back on "Render Preview" to see what your changes have done. Note: if your preview shows all black, or mostly dark, you may have moved your camera angle to view the side of a mountain! Don't panic, just move your camera angle again.

Now it's time to change the lighting. Click on the little icon on the left that looks like a sun and the "Lighting Conditions" window will come up. From here you can change the angle of the sun and/or the intensity of the sun as you wish. You can even go crazy and change the color of the sunlight by clicking on the "Specify Sunlight Color" circle, then click on the "Colour of Sunlight" button. If you wish, the sunlight could come from Betelgeuse or Polaris on your alien world.

Are there clouds on your landscape? To change the cloud setting, as you might have guessed by now, you click on the icon on the left that looks like clouds and you'll see the "Cloudscape" window come up. Here you can change the density, frequency, color, etc. of the clouds in your world. Feel free to experiment. Every once in a while click on the "Render Preview" button in the "Rendering Control" window to see what your world looks like now.

As you can see, Terragen is ever versatile and easily manipulated to create all kinds of landscapes. I had a lot of fun learning this neat little freeware program. I hope you have fun with it as well.

And, it should be noted, if you couple Terragen with other software, such as the infamous Gimp, you can create things like the first picture that I have for this article (other pictures are screenshots of Terragen in action). Mix and match and let the artist in you create your own worlds and landscapes.