> Alain<aze### [at] qwertyorg>  wrote:

>>> Hello, to all, I'm browsing and searching for free solutions to generate
>>> landscapes, preferably easy to use. I currently found:
>>> -Genesis Toolkit
>>> http://www.schrammel.org/genesis.php?l=en
>> It looks like the last version dates back to 1998.
>>
>>> -tierra project
>>> http://www.schrammel.org/genesis.php?l=en
>> Wrong url...
>>>
>>>
>>> For the trees:
>>> -Tom Tree
>>> http://www.aust-manufaktur.de/austt.html
>>>
>>>
>>> Is there anything else really uefull?
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Tom trees is arguably one of the best tree maker you can find. Great to
>> crate individual trees.
>>
>> For the terrains, you can try Terragen. Both versions, 1 and 2, are free
>> for personal, non-comercial, use. You can get it here:
>> http://www.planetside.co.uk
>>
>>
>> Alain
>
> Thanks for answering, and sorry about the wrong link: Project Tierra is indeed
> at:
> http://www.ignorancia.org/en/index.php?page=Project_Tierra
>
> By "arguably[...]individual trees" do you mean that they will be too heavy for
> big forests? and should be complemented with another software for background
> trees? any idea which one?

Each tree is created as a mesh, and, depending on the quality and detail 
of that mesh, it can get very large.
There is no problem using the same mesh 1000's of times in a scene, but 
1000 identical trees together is not realistic.

One thing you can do is to use the same tree several times, but to 
scale, slightly and unevenly, and rotate it randomly. Use 2 or 3 trees 
will do an even beter job while keeping the memory load reasonable.

Then, you can use very low quality ones behind. The "bilboard" technic 
can be used advangageously in that case.

>
> Arbaro seemed good but doesn't generate textures.
>
> about the terrain, I searched for European DEM (Digital Elevation Models)  files
> and the best site I could find so far was this:
>
> http://geoengine.nima.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/rast_roam.html
> If using DEM alone isn't precise enough, I might tweak it with Blender sculpt
> tools and generate the heightfield out of that. But I would love to have a more
> procedural approach.
>
>
> About Terragen, I'm trying to stay in the free for commercial use realm, if I
> can first. Geomorph seemed good for that but has no windows version.
>
> I forgot to mention, Plant Studio for smaller plants:
> http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/
>
>
>
Alain

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