heightmapbased

Heightmap-based refers to a method of representing and generating 3D surfaces, especially terrain, by using a heightmap—an image or data array in which the value at each position encodes the elevation of the surface above a base plane. In this scheme, a grid of x and y coordinates is mapped to a corresponding height z, producing a heightfield mesh. Heightmaps are commonly stored as grayscale images (8-bit or 16-bit) or as dedicated data arrays and can be derived from digital elevation models, photogrammetry, or procedural noise.

In practice, heightmaps are used to generate terrain by displacing the vertices of a base mesh according to the height values. Rendering often employs level-of-detail techniques, tessellation, or displacement mapping to adapt geometry to viewing distance while maintaining performance. Heightmaps can be tiled to create large landscapes, with additional techniques like blending, erosion, or texture-based coloring to enhance realism.

Advantages of heightmap-based terrain include simplicity, memory efficiency, compatibility with image-based workflows, and straightforward editing and integration with game engines and GIS pipelines. Limitations include fixed topology that cannot represent overhangs or caves, resolution-dependent detail, potential aliasing, and dependence on a chosen scale for height values. Heightmaps also underpin many real-world data sets, such as Digital Elevation Models used in geographic information systems.

Common formats for storing heightmaps include PNG, TIFF, and RAW, with GIS tools often utilizing GeoTIFF or similar metadata-rich variants. Major game engines and 3D packages provide built-in support for converting heightmaps into exportable terrain meshes.