Large-scale Terrain Authoring through Interactive Erosion Simulation

Abstract

Large-scale terrains are essential in the definition of virtual worlds. Given the diversity of landforms and the geomorphological complexity, there is a need for authoring techniques offering hydrological consistency without sacrificing user control. In this article, we bridge the gap between large-scale erosion simulation and authoring into an efficient framework. We set aside modeling in the elevation domain in favour of the uplift domain and compute emerging reliefs by simulating the stream power erosion. Our simulation relies on a fast yet accurate approximation of drainage area and flow routing to compute the erosion interactively, which allows for incremental authoring. Our model provides landscape artists with tools for shaping mountain ranges and valleys, such as copy-and-paste operations; warping for imitating folds and faults; and point and curve elevation constraints to precisely sculpt ridges or carve river networks. It also lends itself to inverse procedural modeling by reconstructing the uplift from an input digital elevation model and allows hydrologically consistent blending between terrain patches.