Picogen is a

rendering system Rendering or image synthesis is the process of generating a photorealistic or non-photorealistic image from a 2D or 3D model by means of a computer program. The resulting image is referred to as the render. Multiple models can be defined ...

for the creation and rendering of artificial terrain, based on ray tracing. It is

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

Overview

While the primary purpose of picogen is to display realistic 3D terrain, both in terms of terrain formation ''and'' image plausibility, it also is a

heightmap In computer graphics, a heightmap or heightfield is a raster image used mainly as Discrete Global Grid in secondary elevation modeling. Each pixel stores values, such as surface elevation data, for display in 3D computer graphics. A heightm ...

-creation tool, in which heightmaps are programmed in a syntax reminiscent of

Lisp A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

. The

shading Shading refers to the depiction of depth perception in 3D models (within the field of 3D computer graphics) or illustrations (in visual art) by varying the level of darkness. Shading tries to approximate local behavior of light on the object's ...

system is partially programmable.

Example features

* Whitted-Style

ray tracer In 3D computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for modeling Light transport theory, light transport for use in a wide variety of Rendering (computer graphics), rendering algorithms for generating digital image, digital images. On a spectr ...

for quick previews * Rudimentary path tracer for high quality results * Partial implementation of Preetham's Sun-/Skylight Model * Procedural

s, though before rendering they are

tesselated A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of g ...

Frontends

Currently there is a frontend to picogen, called picogen-wx (based on

wxWidgets wxWidgets (formerly wxWindows) is a widget toolkit and tools library for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for cross-platform applications. wxWidgets enables a program's GUI code to compile and run on several computer platforms with mini ...

). It is encapsulated from picogen and thus communicates with it on

command-line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

level. Picogen-wx provides several panels to design the different aspects of a landscape, e.g. the Sun/Sky- or the Terrain-Texture-Panel. Each panel has its own preview window, though each preview window can be reached from any other panel. Landscapes can be loaded and saved through an own, simple

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

-based file format, and images of arbitrary size (including antialiasing) can be saved.

References

External links

*
picogens DeviantArt-Group-Page
Free 3D graphics software 3D rendering software for Linux Global illumination software Rendering systems Free software programmed in C++ Software that uses wxWidgets {{software-stub