Systems and methods for synthesising a terrain

A system for synthesising a terrain comprising:

• a memory store providing access to multiple exemplar terrain image-based templates;
• an image buffer for generating a working terrain image with user-defined target terrain dimensions and an associated working terrain height image;
• a synthesis engine for generating a synthesised terrain including:
• an exemplar terrain template sampling component for sampling a plurality of the exemplar terrain templates for addition of the templates to the working terrain image;
• and
• an image synthesis component for performing image synthesis to improve the working terrain image including height matching the exemplar terrain samples to user-defined height constraints;
• a control component for controlling modification of the working terrain image by applying user-defined constraints to modify the synthesised terrain;
• and
• an output component for outputting the working terrain image as a synthesised terrain in the form of a synthesised height-field.

A computer program product for synthesising a terrain, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having stored computer-readable program code for performing the steps of:

• providing access to multiple exemplar terrain templates;
• generating a working terrain image with user-defined target terrain dimensions and an associated working terrain height image, including:
• providing user-defined constraints including height constraints;
• sampling a plurality of the exemplar terrain templates for addition of the templates to the working terrain image;
• and
• performing image synthesis to improve the working terrain image including height matching the exemplar terrain samples;
• controlling modification of the working terrain image by applying user-defined constraints to modify the synthesised terrain;
• and
• outputting the working terrain image as a synthesised terrain in the form of a synthesised height-field.