Volumetric Virtual Worlds with Layered Terrain Generation

Procedural terrain generators are widely used in computer games, simulators and other virtual environments. Traditionally, these methods have been focused on generating realistic landscapes and their elements, like mountains or rivers. In contrast, there is a movement in the industry which employs virtual worlds using volumetric terrains. This movement uses its owns methods to generate terrains, but they lack of customization features and are completely centered around their specific problem domains. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to generate procedural volumetric terrains specially suited for shared worlds. Our approach generates completely customizable volumetric terrains with layered materials and other features (such as mineral veins, material mixtures and underground material flow). We enable the designer to specify the characteristics of the terrain and its materials with intuitive parameters. Moreover, our method uses a specific representation for the terrain based on stacked material structures, reducing the memory size and making it easier to share.