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Procedural Vegetation

THE ABOVE IMAGE IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE LANDSCAPE USED TO GENERATE THE IMAGES SHOWN BELOW.

Overview

The 'Biome Wizard' is a C++ application that employs mathematical vegetation prediction and modelling techniques to generate realistic vegetation distributions from Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data or any height map. It was originally conceived as my dissertation project at university, and was supervised by Keith Ditchburn, Principal Lecturer at Teesside University.

Tested with diverse landscape types in real geographical locations in the Konza Prairie (Grassland), Mojave Desert, and Canadian Taiga (Forest), the tool computes solar radiation for a given latitude, and predicts soil moisture and soil depth from the input height data. These are far better predictors of vegetation distributions than basic slope and elevation and aspect which are traditionally used in games.

Additionally, the tool mathematically calculates shading from higher vegetation layers, emulates species clumping, and finally employs Gaussian probability to predict vegetation distributions based on the calculated data.

Running the application requires only altitude and heightmap inputs, along with basic plant data like light/shade preferences. It generates a series of simple output data maps, which can be used to aid a 3D engine in specifying vegetation placement within virtual environments, whether representing simulations or imaginary landscapes.

By comparing the combined vegetation layer maps to example photographs, you can see that the resulting placement is realistic. I would like to integrate these maps into a 3D engine in the future, and initial trials have shown promising results.

Konza Prairie

Below are a sample of example images generated by the “Biome Wizard” for an example Prairie landscape taken from height data and vegetation from a real location in the USA. The various maps are used to generate the final vegetation layer images. These could be used to generate a realistic 3D representation of the landscape.

 

EACH COLOUR REPRESENTS THE PROBABILITY OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SPECIFIED PLANT SPECIES.