GeoGen - Procedural Terrain and Planet Generation Software

GeoGen application from JangaFX (makers of EmberGen) is used to create landscape/terrains and planets using a procedural workflow. It is currently alpha (but commercial software) available for Windows and Linux with a Mac version in the works.
Links
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If you're interested in their other products, check out our coverage of EmberGen here:
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And the free Game Texture Viewer here:
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[@gamefromscratch]

Links gamefromscratch.com/geogen-procedural-terrain-and-planet-generator/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Support* : www.patreon.com/gamefromscratch *GameDev News* : gamefromscratch.com *GameDev Tutorials* : devga.me *Discord* : discord.com/invite/R7tUVbD *Twitter* : twitter.com/gamefromscratch ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you're interested in their other products, check out our coverage of EmberGen here: gamefromscratch.com/embergen-real-time-fluid-simulation-2/ And the free Game Texture Viewer here: gamefromscratch.com/game-texture-viewer-now-free/

[@rolandocruz15]

Looking very similar to Gaea. Not a critique but an observation. Real cool...

[@benhunter8551]

Would be hard to beat Gaea in terms of quality and price. Gaea will be releasing a major update soon as well.

[@existentialselkath1264]

I was hoping this would be a cheaper alternative tbh. The planet stuff is pretty cool though

[@marsmotion]

@@benhunter8551 gaea is slow tho compared to world creator and others. its just slow

[@benhunter8551]

@@marsmotion It works fine with the smaller terrains, but yeah it definitely could be faster. I think it would be impossible on my potato PC to build an 8K terrain.

[@recondeveloper2023]

@@benhunter8551 I like GAEA, but its crash heavy ..... GAEA 1 has great erosion other than that, it crashes all the time.... I used alot of different software, so far GG has been solid.

[@KevinMerinoCreations]

Thanks for the video! It looks promising. I can easily see where game studios would get a lot of value out of having some seats on hand for their creators. 👏👏👏

[@yassineerraqui1034]

written in Odin 👀

[@jamesreed361]

What a small world, I was just watching a video talking about this yesterday.

[@FireFox64000000]

Landscape begins when you hold your terrain sideways.

[@MangaGamified]

Quoting somebody " It's the same old noise + "displace along normals" method, lacking any innovation... The GUI and node system are beautiful, no doubt about that. Why not push the boundaries and introduce something new? Like the integration of "vector displacement maps" alongside the standard normal displacement. IDK, that has the potential to revolutionize this niche market and create something that truly stands out from other terrain generation software. "

[@LordCritish]

Not free but at least they offer a one-time purchase price and you own the product instead of subscription customer exploiting-only like so many others.

[@bluebottlevt]

What's the alternative software (Free) for landscape and fire fx please?

[@mjKlaim]

I was more interested into how it integrates into engines (Unreal Engine and Godot in my case). The export of obj is mainly about the mesh but are there ways to export *everything*

[@ahettinger525]

Also very interested in how it integrates with Godot. @jangafx seems to be in the comments section. Maybe we'll hear from them!

[@jangafx]

For now simple heightmap exports or direct meshes to either of those engines. We hope to have actual integrations in the future but no ETA on that yet.

[@publicmmi]

@@jangafx So texturing, trees, vegetations, etc. need to be done manually (redone) in the engines?

[@jangafx]

​ @publicmmi Once we have biome information integrated into GeoGen, you should be able to export null points for the location of all of those distributed assets. For now we don't have it yet, though you can export masks where these things will be and populate them in your engine via that mask. You can export full textures out of GeoGen though as is. You just may need more complex shaders for up close detail as with any terrain. So to answer your question, when you export the assets, you need to import them and set them up in whatever way makes sense for your workflow.

[@iLikeCoffee777]

Jesus that price! For an alpha that is absolutely insane!! Also, that honestly isn't that impressive as there's already several other software that do terrain creation with nodes.

[@recondeveloper2023]

compared to competition its cheaper... plus 2nd year 75$, other software is 200-800$

[@askeladden450]

I think you can get the same funnctionality for free with blender and geometry nodes. Although you would have to do a lot more work to find all the right addons and building custom modifiers.

[@SgtMajor82]

DEM import would be really nice on this

[@blacksage81]

I'm all but sold as I need a terrain solution asap. The burning questions I have are, can I import an obj as the basis for my terrain? Can I use that terrain to generate a plant around said terrain? Will the studio version be able to output higher quality assets than the indie version?

[@existentialselkath1264]

Also look at gaea. Quite a well established node based terrain generator. Can't speak to which is better though

[@jangafx]

We do not feature lock anything behind different license types. They are the exact same tool, just different price points for different budgets. Yes, you can import an object and that can generate a terrain around it. We can't quite bend terrain into a planet just yet, but you can atleast "stamp" that terrain onto a planet.

[@blacksage81]

@@jangafx Sold. Just need to save up as I don't do subscription models.

[@blacksage81]

@@existentialselkath1264 I am trying the free version now, it seems nice, I'm not very well versed in it, but Gaea Gatekeeps output resolutions by price point. Which was the basis for my third question.

[@TheMesoria]

How does it compare to MapMagic or Gaea?

[@PurpleKnightmare]

Can you generate another terrain block that matches the first one off one or more sides for seamless terrain? Also, this hardly looks like an alpha version, more like a Beta version.

[@kunibertrandolf1886]

Only makes me more excited as to what will be possible in the full release. If THIS is alpha state, a the beta or 1.0 release alone will have me explode in map generation joy

[@TorQueMoD]

Landscape is just Epic's new term for terrains as of UE4. They used to call them terrain as well, but they wanted to highlight the fact that they redesigned the entire system with UE4. Otherwise there isn't a difference. Terrain is the more generic term.

[@dkdksan]

opensource in MiT license,I might try it

[@DirkTeucher]

This would be really useful if there was a tileable x/y option when generating terrain.

[@jangafx]

Soon :)

[@kogekisaru]

With the terrain generation can one tile multiple terrains next to each other seamlessly?

[@jangafx]

This is planned for a future update!

[@kyneticist]

This should be pretty popular, people like trains.

[@delphicdescant]

I thought that's what he said too. Took me a moment to realize my disappointment.

[@kodosunofficial]

It's written in Odin, a programming language created by Gingerbill

[@nolram]

The video description is incorrect, according to your own video it is available for Windows and Linux, not Mac.

[@gamefromscratch]

Thanks, fixed, brain fart.

[@Riley_Christian]

sad for me to see how expensive yet amazing these programs are 😢

[@dominionscave4752]

So, is this a new business model ? Get users to pay for software that is in development before it is in production and potentially breaking ones work while updates and bugs etc are applied , like some kind of crowd funding scheme, or perhaps scam. Do they also expect those that sign up to be free beta testers for them as well rather then employ and pay their own? It's like asking some one to pay for a new car being developed and to be a test dummy to make sure the breaks work and the car does not crash into a wall. Seems best to stay away from paying until the completed production version is released.

[@jangafx]

I think we have a proven track record of being a business of being built on nothing but ruthless integrity and it saddens me that people would think that we're a scammy company. We use sales to fund development and we've put around a few hundred thousand dollars into the tools development to date, which was funded by our other tool EmberGen. You reserve the full right to not use the tool until it's finished. We don't expect anyone to beta test, but people provide their feedback when they run into issues as with literally any other software company out there. Of course we have our own internal QA team that works extensively to vet the product releases before they're out.

[@Shaun137]

Trains I like trains lol, sorry nice video thanks.

[@masondavis400]

geogen cut my gpu signal many times also couple times reset to the driver setting.. i was really scared so immediately unistalling this app. my opinion geogen not ready yet. I never seen before like that issues. My Specs : I9-13900K , 4090 MSI GPU , 64GB DDR5 , Gigabyte Aorus NVM (x2)

[@partymetroid]

Staggering. 🤔

[@dannys_85]

This needs lot of work to be competitive to others software, I am going to buy Gaea 2 the best for Terrain.

[@jangafx]

We absolutely have a lot of work to do and our core focus will be for games. It'll get there :)

[@dannys_85]

@@jangafx don't get me wrong, i work every day with large terrains, i use Houdini And Unity in the studio, Houdini terrain is not the best one think you may consider is to have a bridge from your application to Houdini because we may do the Terrain inside other CG application but must be back to Houdini for details like roads building etc. if you need any feedback let me know i will be happy to help, i am not fx artist but your other fx aplications is fantastic.

[@dannys_85]

​@@jangafx don't get me wrong, i work every day with large terrains, i use Houdini And Unity in the studio, Houdini terrain is not the best one think you may consider is to have a bridge from your application to Houdini because we may do the Terrain inside other CG application but must be back to Houdini for details like roads building etc. if you need any feedback let me know i will be happy to help, i am not fx artist but your other fx aplications is fantastic.

[@shikhermyv]

Gaea seems better. Much better results with less nodes.

[@rfsbsb]

Cool tool, too pricey for indie devs...

[@jangafx]

$9.99/m (rent to OWN) is our cheapest option for it which should be really affordable!

[@existentialselkath1264]

​@@jangafxso it takes 18 months to own. By my maths, that's a little under $180. Cheap for pro software, not cheap at all for the average Joe.

[@ethanwasme4307]

@@existentialselkath1264 brother in christ... want to tell the class how much a houdini, gaea, world machine, world creator license costs? 180 is a steeeaaal!

[@existentialselkath1264]

@@ethanwasme4307 "cheap for pro software"

[@ahettinger525]

@@jangafx $10/mo RTO is very reasonable.

[@ethanwasme4307]

If you can create functions/devices and node comments I'll be happy... sick of node based software with no way of formatting

[@iLikeCoffee777]

Amen to that! Unless I can print the nodes out in flat file format to review, I'm not interested.

[@jangafx]

We do have extensive node commenting functions as well as node rerouting. No functions just yet but we're getting there. You can copy/paste nodes between projects though.

[@LloydSummers]

I dont really like jengafx/zimbra/odin/etc, drm locked monthly subscription with price increases based on varying tiers of revenue etc. I just like to make cool stuff, I dont want to continually reassess all our game engine assets - including unused ones - to verify subscriptions every year or month. Its a bit ridiculous. That aside, it doesn't seem to export to anything in any meaningful format. I'm confused what we are paying for exactly. I'd rather pay $100+ to a small creator one time, and get more advanced plugins for Blender or direct into Unity or Unreal. At least its usable in something that way. And your money is going to mean a whole lot more to them. On a plus note, its uhm a terrain generator. I suppose we always need more of those. For importing into game engines and 3D programs... Im confused how it is commercial software, but alpha software, and still doesnt export to other engines beyond OBJ files? What exactly is it intended to be commercially used for? Maybe its just to compete with Terragen? Im not sure. Still, that all aside, always happy to have more options.

[@jangafx]

Odin is a programming language that we use to build EmberGen, GeoGen, LiquiGen and some game developers use it as well. We happen to be one of the main contributors of the language and one of the primary users of it. Not sure what it has to do with subscriptions. And if your game makes it to $1 million for the next revenue tier that we charge for, that would be an absolutely awesome achievement for you. You can choose to activate our tools offline if you so choose to go through the process to limit our "DRM". Right now the tool exports height maps, textures, masks, and meshes for terrain & planets. Being JangaFX, we wouldn't make a tool unless we truly thought we could do something better than others and what we're aiming for with GeoGen is this: 1. Cliffs and overhangs, besides something like houdini, you just can't do cliffs and overhangs with any other terrain tool. This is one of our next upcoming features. 2. Ease of use and a fantastic user experience 3. Built specifically for games - We're going to add road placement, biome generation, and so on. 4. Anything geology related: Rock sculpting, cliff assets, rock generators, etc for meshes to scatter in game. 5. Animated terrain - We're working on some new tech that allows you to actually animate things like erosion, deformation, height etc with our timeline feature. Could potentially be useful in the future as a new export type to games. If you don't like us, that's alright. We're just trying to make better tools for game developers and not everyone will like us. GeoGen still has a LONG way to go and we know that. If you watch my video on vulnerability and how we operate as a company and the care that we give to our customers and you still feel the same about us, let me know: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYi4iadvp76gfc0

[@LloydSummers]

@jangafx Sorry, I realize the confusion. I'm referring to odin inspector which, much like you, have a tiered scaling subscription model depending on revenue, usage, etc. Only theirs is predatory as it is easy to accidentally inherit a client project dependant on it, and surprise, your company has a new subscription model for a product you are going to use one time. As for the rest of the message, yes I'm sure you have features and think it's great (and it is), but it is very difficult to actually use it with anything. And it doesn't change anything in my response. I'm not interested in the liability of every asset creator trying to create to their own platforms, with their own eulas, with their own tiered systems, that need to be tracked and maintained and reviewed on some kind of tethered subscription to some custom account on their systems and some third party desktop application or web app to use it with that we just need to pray is compatible with our workflow that day. It's a hard pass for me right now. As I said, I'd encourage people to buy actual production ready and commercial ready one time purchased tools right out of the store front for the engine they are using. The rest of this is just a massive make work project for developers to deal with just to get some terrain or a planet into a project. It's the same reason terragen has struggled for so long in my opinion.

[@jangafx]

@@LloydSummers Fair enough! Thanks for taking the time to respond :)

[@MushroomDev]

You can do a lot of this in blender for free.

[@itisabird]

I'm pretty sure you can do even more than this with Blender, but would it be as easy and quick as this seems to be?

[@existentialselkath1264]

​@@itisabirdit's all about learning the available nodes. Difference is, learning the nodes in blender enables far more than terrain generation. Blender can't do all of this as efficiently though. I'd assume this can simulate erosion, there's no good analog for this in blender.

[@recondeveloper2023]

nonsense, I been a developer a long time and used every piece of software related to terrains, Blender, Maya, etc...... Blender cant not make height maps this fast and this good.. This is why software like this, World Machine, World Creator, GAEA are all popular, stay off the pipe ....

[@delphicdescant]

Ugh, nodes. Node graphs are so clunky.

[@weirdscix]

I think they have some cheek, using paying customers as Alpha testers, behaviour like this shouldn't be financially rewarded.

[@jangafx]

I disagree. It's a working tool that produces rather nice results for heightmaps. This is what we've always done and development costs a fortune. You do have the choice to not buy and its primarily for people who already own the suite.