PCG Antarctica

Intro

Abstract

Procedurally Generated Antartica using Perlin Noise to create complex heightmap terrain in Unity

Overview

Procedural Content Generation

Perlin Noise

Perlin Noise is a type of gradient noise that is useful for PCG.

In Unity, the Mathf.PerlinNoise function takes an x and y coordinate and returns a value between 0 and 1.

If you treat this value as terrain height (after multiplying by a scale factor), you get:

• low values → valleys
• high values → hills / mountains

Because the values change smoothly across space, the resulting terrain looks natural instead of random.

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Building a PCG Graph

The PCG generator (PCG Terrain component) will be used to segment the terrain into distinct biomes according to boundaries generated by Perlin Noise.

PCG Configuration

PCG Configuration

• X / Y / Z Offsets – Shifts the sampling position of the noise → moves terrain without changing shape
• Perlin Scale (zoom) – Controls feature size
• low frequency → large, smooth regions (biomes)
• high frequency → small, detailed features (rocks)
  Max Value – Limits amplitude → higher = taller terrain, lower = flatter
  Noise Type – Algorithm used (Perlin, Simplex, etc.) → affects pattern style
  Process Parent Variables – Inherits parent values → enables layering (e.g., biome masks affecting children)

Tip

• Offset = move the map
• Scale = zoom in/out
• Max Value = how tall
• Noise Type = style of randomness
• Process Parent = whether layers interact

Creating Biomes

• See PCG Demo for how to create distinct biomes

Animating

• You can add time-based offset variables to the Process() call in PCGTerrain.cs

Biome: Mountain

Create Biome

• See PCG Demo for how to create distinct biomes

Texture

• Used a texture from asset store to Paint Terrain with Textures in Unity

• The texture will be tiled, so adjust the scale to stretch the texture over the terrain and change the offset

• Increase the smoothness to make the snow look better

Lighting

Directional Lighting

• Make the directional lighting slightly more blue

Skybox

Create skybox material

• In Project window, Right click → Create → Material → Give it a name

Assign HDR file

• Click the file, then drag in the .hdr file (from Source/cubemap/) into the Spherical (HDR) field

Apply it to scene

• Go to Window → Rendering → Lighting → Environment → Drag the material file into the Skybox Material field

Biome: Glacier

Texture

• Get Stylize Snow Texture from asset store

• Create a Terrain Layer and fill:

  • Diffuse: Vol_22_4_Base_Color.png
  • Normal Map: Vol_22_4_Normal.png

• Paint the ice near the water surface with bluish textures

  • 4K Tiled Ground Textures (part 1)

Biome: Ocean

• gazebo-seabed

Create OceanPlane

• Select GameObject → 3D Object → Plane
• Scale the plane (x: 200, z: 200)
• Add water material
• Add a 2nd blue plane below the OceanPlane to make the water more translucent

• With a different Skybox

Initial Attempt

Final

Add Player Input

Player Object

• Create a Player object or import a Prefab
• Disable FreeLookCameraRig since we will switch to first person POV

Update

• Change color
• Replace material with boat object

Install Input System

• Click Window → Package Manager → Unity Registry → Search Input System → Install

• PlayerScripts

  • Drag the files InputManager.cs, PlayerLook.cs, PlayerMotor.cs to the Player object
  • Drag the Player’s Main Camera into the cam variable of PlayerLook.cs

• Input

  • PlayerInput.cs
  • PlayerInput.InputActions

Boat