https://github.com/tessapower/3d-terrain
3D terrain simulation built with C++, GLSL, OpenGL and ImGui. Users move around a procedurally generated scene of trees, clouds, and terrain, and edit the terrain mesh in real-time using the mouse.
https://github.com/tessapower/3d-terrain
cpp glsl imgui opengl procedural-generation realtime-rendering
Last synced: 2 days ago
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3D terrain simulation built with C++, GLSL, OpenGL and ImGui. Users move around a procedurally generated scene of trees, clouds, and terrain, and edit the terrain mesh in real-time using the mouse.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/tessapower/3d-terrain
- Owner: tessapower
- License: mit
- Created: 2023-11-29T22:22:06.000Z (over 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-02-05T02:07:44.000Z (3 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-02-05T14:41:52.481Z (3 months ago)
- Topics: cpp, glsl, imgui, opengl, procedural-generation, realtime-rendering
- Language: C++
- Homepage:
- Size: 21.3 MB
- Stars: 6
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# 3D Terrain Simulation
An interactive 3D terrain simulation, featuring user controls to move around the scene and an editable terrain mesh that updates in real-time.
| Real-Time Mesh Editing |
|:---:|
|  |
| Perlin Noise Terrain Generation |
|:---:|
|  |
| Mesh Simplification using Varying Voxel Resolutions |
|:---:|
|  |
Technical aspects of this implementation include:
- Terrain mesh generation using Perlin Noise with varying Level of Detail (L.O.D)
- Procedurally generated trees that flow with the terrain as it is edited.
- Procedurally generated clouds using the Marching Cubes algorithm and Perlin Noise.
- Mesh simplification with varying voxel resolutions.
- Ability to edit the terrain mesh by raising or excavating certain areas.
- The terrain displays different textures depending on the height of the mesh at any given point.
- Interactive flying camera that lets the user move around the scene.
## Prerequisites
- OpenGL v3.3
- CMake
- C++11 compiler
The recommended way to build this project is using CMake, so the best structure for the project files is create a dedicated `build` directory in the root of the project.
```bash
git clone https://github.com/tessapower/3d-terrain.git
cd 3d-terrain
mkdir build
cd build
# Replace "Visual Studio XX" with your preferred IDE and version
cmake -G "Visual Studio XX" ..\
```
After following the above instructions, the directory structure will look like this:
### Project Structure
```bash
3d-terrain
├───build
│ ├───bin # Executable directory
│ ├───CMakeFiles
│ ├───ext
│ ├───res
│ ├───src
│ └───x64
├───ext # External libraries, included for simplicity
├───res # Asset/Texture files & a self-contained project for shaders
│ ├───assets
│ ├───shaders
│ └───textures
└───src
├───cgra # CGRA350 Framework source code
├───clouds # Cloud model source code
├───mesh # Code related to editing or simplifying a mesh
├───terrain # Terrain model source code
├───trees # Procedurally generated trees source code
└───utils # Utility classes used throughout the project
```
## Interacting with the Program
### Keyboard/Mouse Controls
| Key | Action |
|:---:|:------:|
| W | Zoom In (Forwards) |
| S | Zoom Out (Backwards) |
| A | Pan Left |
| D | Pan Right |
| Middle Mouse Click + Hold | Rotate camera |
### GUI Controls
#### Voxel Settings
| Control | Description |
|:-------:|:-----------:|
| Voxel Size | Changes the amount of points sampled of the original mesh |
| IsoLevel | How far away from the mesh a voxel point must be for it to be considered "solid" |
| Smooth Normals | Toggles Smoothed Normals on/off |
| Debugging (Menu) | Allows for visualisation of different steps in the simplification process of the Bunny |
| Cloud Threshold | The threshold the noise value needs to pass to become a solid cloud |
| Cloud Fade out | The distance from the edge of the voxel grid that the cloud starts to fade out on the Y axis to prevent hard edges |
#### Mesh Editing and Terrain
| Control | Description |
|:-------:|:-----------:|
| Radius | Changes Radius of terrain manipulation |
| Strength | Changes Strength of terrain manipulation |
| Grass/Mud Height | Changes at what height the Grass/Mud Textures will appear |
| Mud/Rocks Height | Changes at what height the Mud/Rocks Textures will appear |
| Heightmap Scale | Changes intensity of heightmap |
| Normal Map | Toggles on or off the normal map |
| Raise/Excavate | Switches Mode to either Raise or Excavate Terrain |
| Deform | Raises or Excavates the currently selected terrain |
| Octaves | Number of times the noise values are iterated over |
| Lacunarity | Affects the frequency of the noise |
| Persistence | Affects the amplitude of the noise |
| Height | Scales the height of the heightmap |
| Repeats | Determines how many "tiles" the heightmap can repeat for |
| Seed | Allows the permutation map to become seeded for deterministic randomness |
| Perlin/Flat | Switches Mode to generate either flat or Perlin based Terrain |
| Recreate Terrain | Regenerates Terrain with new values |
#### Tree Settings
| Control | Description |
|:-------:|:-----------:|
| Spooky Mode | Toggles showing tree foliage |
| New Tree | Generates a new base tree |
| Print Tree | Prints a list to stdout of every branch in the tree and the information about that branch |