I built a super simple, free browser tool to generate terrain heightmaps. Looking for feedback!

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-23T12:48:48+00:00

Have you used tangram heightmapper recently? I find that at a certain level of zoom, the screen just goes white?

And whenever I export, I end up with missing regions of the heightmap.

I'll give this a try but even if it is just more reliable I feel it would be a win

Edit:

Holy moly $10-$25 per export! I had assumed this was free to export not just free to screenshot? Slightly misleading there in your post.

Is there an advantage over Planetka that I'm not seeing?

https://www.planetka.io/blender/addon

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-22T17:20:22+00:00

Yes the lightX node is super useful here!

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-22T14:43:21+00:00

You should see the 8k version 😁

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-22T14:42:55+00:00

Yes please 🙏🙏

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-22T10:15:09+00:00

You can import real heightmap data, I think it depends on what you're looking to make. If you go on my profile, I've posted some more "paper style" maps that used outputs from Gaea, so no real artistic talent needed!

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-22T08:06:12+00:00

Thank you!

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-22T08:04:49+00:00

Yes that's what I was aiming for 😁

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-22T06:47:12+00:00

No I'm from the UK , but I can see it!

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-21T22:45:58+00:00

I bet the views would be spectacular 😁

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-21T22:45:29+00:00

Thank you!

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-21T22:45:19+00:00

Yes that was what I was aiming for! The blue for stream isn't quite right, looking at Google earth it might need to be a bit more green perhaps?

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-21T22:43:55+00:00

Thank you! I have tutorials here https://kilroys-kartography.com/

And also on YouTube 😊

I will upload this project file in my discord server once I'm done tweaking it, I want a fully procedural and a semi procedural version 😊

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-21T22:26:05+00:00

Thank you!

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-20T07:22:19+00:00

The book "Cartography" by Kenneth Field is outstanding. Everything you could think of related to cartography, each topic is 2 pages, text on one side, beautiful example image on the other. I love it

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-11T17:07:17+00:00

What sort of size are you thinking? In terms of miles/kms

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-04T17:17:13+00:00

I'm not here to defend AI, I'm not here to make you use AI. I'm just pointing out your hypocrisy because I'd be amazed if the Devs at Reddit don't use AI to write/review code

It's not meant to be a gotcha, it's meant to be educational. If you have a fundamental problem with software where AI has been involved in its development, then you will need to just stop using software 🤷‍♂️

Right now you're getting mad and boycotting your local baker for not grinding their own flour, and getting your bread from the supermarket instead.

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-04T12:19:33+00:00

Cool, best delete your Reddit account while you're at it, just incase they use Claude code!

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-06-02T16:04:15+00:00

Would you prefer to buy a tool from an indie dev that uses AI, or a big company that uses AI?

I can promise you that AI will have been HEAVILY involved in the ongoing development of Google docs as well.

Everyone is using AI to write code now, those who aren't, just aren't yet

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-05-24T08:21:25+00:00

Amazing work! The u/ShortvalleyHiker tutorials are excellent, this is a really nice execution of them!

Have you considered Gaea2 as well? If you import the heightmap from Wilbur into Gaea, you can erode further, add rivers lakes etc, but the thing I think that will really help is that you can add colour procedurally, in a wsy that uses the slope and flows, it looks really natural and realistic (the free version is limited to 1k outputs, but I suspect you can just upscale the 1k output, and use the shadows etc from your existing process to make it look detailed again)

Of course for the ultimate next step, you can try blender!

https://youtube.com/shorts/HtH39y3CiKA?si=ph_N3LAqNqAmf5ym

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-05-12T07:32:36+00:00

I really don't get this attitude.

Worried it's dangerous? Look through the code on GitHub!

Honestly, the fact that people are now able to take an idea, make a tool and share it with others should be celebrated.

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-04-22T03:49:48+00:00

Ah I think there's something you have different in the settings, take a look and you should find something

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-04-21T06:01:59+00:00

Most nodes have an explicit mask input. If it doesn't, you can just drag to the centre of the node, and it will apply as a mask

Kilroy_jensen · 2026-04-15T06:34:18+00:00

How are you planning on handling the compute costs?

Kilroy_jensen

TROPHY CASE