3D Terrain Generation (Voxel and Realistic)

Game Mechanics
#1

Alright guys this is it. The big one. I have finally started with 3D using libgdx and I have to say, the first time I saw my little green cube render in I nearly pissed myself in joy. Anyways, I thought it would be good to start out with simple terrain generation.

I have done some research and have come up with perlin noise as a popularly used one (right?) so I have access to all the algorithms and things, but my real question is for my voxels, should I use libgdx’s ModelBuilder.createBox or should I load in an obj file (aka 3d model) to render? Also, for realistic terrain generation I honestly have no clue where to start.

What do you guys suggest?

Thanks
-cMp

#2

Håå, libGDX has a new 3D API? D:

Neat! https://code.google.com/p/libgdx/wiki/Grapics3DQuickStart

I don’t know much or anything really about the libGDX 3D API, perhaps you should ask in the libGDX forums?

http://www.badlogicgames.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=7a9e6a7721c97df6686b50aad5fbb8dd

SimplexNoise is an algorithm that can create pretty nice looking terrain and someone has been posting this pdf which I liked a lot: http://webstaff.itn.liu.se/~stegu/simplexnoise/simplexnoise.pdf

Simplex noise is an “improved” version of Perlin noise made by the same man (Ken Perlin) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplex_noise

Basically when using noise you just take the values from the noise function and stick it straight to the height (z value if you will) of the terrain. You can have a couple of noise functions with different starting values and combine them to get “more realistic” terrain with a few high hills and oceans etc.

#3

awesome, thanks for the links! And yeah, the libgdx team recently came out with a completely reworked 3D api!
For people that are a little more familiar with libgdx, should I use the built in createBox method or 3d model?