Generating Realistic River Patterns with Space Colonization

Abstract

River generation is an integral part of realistic terrain generation, since rivers shape terrains and changes in terrain, e.g., due to tectonic movements can change the path of rivers. Fast existing terrain generation methods often result in non-realistic river patterns, whereas physically-realistic techniques, e.g., building on erosion models, are usually slow. In this paper we investigate whether the Space Colonization Algorithm can be modified to generate realistic river patterns. We present several extensions of the Space Colonization Algorithm and show with a user study with $n=55$ participants that some variants of the algorithm are capable of generating river patterns that are indistinguishable from real river patterns. Although our technique can not generate all types of natural river patterns, our results suggest that it can prove useful for developing plausible 2D maps and potentially can form the basis for new terrain generation techniques.