Show HN: An open source tool to generate contour map landscapes in real-time

1 points by getToTheChopin a day ago

This is a free web tool to create procedural terrain textures in real-time in the browser.

How this works: a bunch of 3D spheres (meta-balls) are drawn on the canvas. They float around and combine with others based on distance. Then, 2D cross-sections are drawn using a Marching Squares algorithm. This ends up producing a terrain contour aesthtetic.

Use the controls at the top-right to set animation speed, size, level of complexity, rotation, colours, and more.

Use the buttons at the bottom-right to randomize the output, and export as image or mp4 video.

This tool is completely free and open source (MIT license). You're welcome to use it however you wish!

This project is coded using vanilla Javascript, HTML5 canvas, and CSS.

Github repo: https://github.com/collidingScopes/curious-contours

Any suggestions, feedback, or pull requests would be much appreciated!

I hope the game dev / procedural generation community finds this useful in some way :)