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From Chaos to Continents: Voronoi-Based Procedural Terrain Generation with Hydrology and 3D Visualization (Media Exposition)

Authors Batsambuu Batbold , Lori Ziegelmeier

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LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.101.pdf
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Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Computing methodologies → Image-based rendering
  • Theory of computation → Computational geometry
Keywords
  • Procedural Content Generation
  • Voronoi Diagrams
  • Lloyd’s Relaxation
  • Perlin Noise
  • Blender

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Abstract

Procedural content generation often employs grid-based methods to create virtual environments. We present a pipeline that utilizes Voronoi diagrams and Lloyd’s Relaxation to construct an irregular mesh for terrain generation. We implement a customizable "Land Anchor" system combined with Perlin noise to determine landmass shapes, distinct from standard radial distribution methods. Furthermore, we simulate hydrology using priority-flood routing on the Voronoi edges and assign biomes via a Gaussian-smoothed Whittaker classification. The full pipeline is exposed through an interactive application that enables real-time parameter tuning and terrain export, and resulting geometric data is extruded in Blender to produce a 3D terrain model.

Cite As Get BibTex

Batsambuu Batbold and Lori Ziegelmeier. From Chaos to Continents: Voronoi-Based Procedural Terrain Generation with Hydrology and 3D Visualization (Media Exposition). In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 101:1-101:7, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026) https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.101

Author Details

Batsambuu Batbold
  • Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, USA
Lori Ziegelmeier
  • Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, USA

Funding

  • Ziegelmeier, Lori: Supported by the NSF award BCS-2318171.

Supplementary Materials

References

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