Interactive demo

Noise Terrain Generator

Stack layers of different noise types into a heightmap and explore the resulting landscape in 3D. Compare how every kind of noise shapes the terrain.

Loading the 3D view …

Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom. Change the noise layers below to reshape the landscape.

Terrain

Shape

Display

Noise layers

The layers are combined from top to bottom, the first one is the base. Solo shows a single layer on its own, so you can compare the noise types directly.

Layer 1Base
Layer 2Add
Layer 3Add

1. Heightmap

Every point of the terrain samples the noise layers at its position. The combined value becomes its height, colored from sea and beach to grass, rock and snow.

2. Stacking layers

A layer with a low frequency forms continents and valleys, higher frequencies add hills and roughness. The blend mode decides how a layer changes the result so far: add, subtract, mask it (multiply) or keep the higher or lower value.

3. Which noise for what

Perlin and simplex noise give smooth, rolling shapes, value noise looks a little blockier. Ridged noise forms mountain ridges, billow noise rounded dunes and Worley noise cells and craters.