System and method for interactive asynchronous tile-based terrain generation

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by one or more computer processors, cause the one or more computer processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• at a first phase of a painting of a digital environment using a brush tool, approximating a modification to a terrain surface of the digital environment, the approximating including decomposing a stroke of the brush tool into one or more stamps, each of the one or more stamps changing a height of a portion of terrain surface as the brush tool passes over the portion of the terrain surface;
• and
• at a second phase of the painting of the digital environment, adding details to the portion of the terrain surface passed over by each of the one or more stamps, the adding of the details including dividing work associated with the adding of the details into one or more tiles and processing the one or more tiles, wherein the first phase is a synchronous preview phase used for user interaction and the second phase is slower than and asynchronous with the first phase.

A method comprising:

• at a first phase of a painting of a digital environment using a brush tool, approximating a modification to a terrain surface of the digital environment, the approximating including decomposing a stroke of the brush tool into one or more stamps, each of the one or more stamps changing a height of a portion of terrain surface as the brush tool passes over the portion of the terrain surface;
• and
• at a second phase of the painting of the digital environment, adding details to the portion of the terrain surface passed over by each of the one or more stamps, the adding of the details including dividing work associated with the adding of the details into one or more tiles and processing the one or more tiles, wherein the first phase is a synchronous preview phase used for user interaction and the second phase is slower than and asynchronous with the first phase.