Terrain heightmap

Heightmap generator

Mark where the peaks, ridges, valleys and water go, light for high and dark for low, and get a grayscale heightmap. The file is one 16-bit channel, which is what terrain importers want.

New accounts get 15 free credits. No card needed. 4 credits per image with GPT Image 2.5 Flare (about $0.11); models that follow the sketch start at 1

Sketch and result

Mountain range · 32×32 sketch · GPT Image 2.5 Flare · 21 s

Archipelago · 32×32 sketch · GPT Image 2.5 Flare · 28 s

Every picture on this page was made for it: a starter template's sketch, one line of description and an art style, then the same finishing steps as your own results. Nothing was retouched.

After you generate

A built-in image editor

Open any result under “Edit assets”: layers with blend modes; rectangle, ellipse, lasso and magic-wand selections; levels, hue and temperature; filters, clone, text and a history panel. Saving adds a new version and the original stays. Layers, selections, clone, text and history are in the pro mode, which is free.

One-click style unification

Put the assets in one project and give it an art style. One click then repaints every 2D result in the project in that style, and runs the project's 3D models through the de-AI pass with it. The AI mode costs 5 credits or more per image, with the total shown before anything runs; the free offline mode evens out palette and outlines only.

How to make one

1Create a “Terrain heightmap”. Pick a terrain type (mountains, islands, canyon, dunes, craters and more) or describe your own.
2Paint heights as greys: white peaks, mid-grey plains, a black sea or valley floor. Long strokes become ridges and rivers.
3Generate and download the PNG. The relief images on this page are rendered from the delivered files, nothing else.

What you get

Sketch grid: 16, 32 or 64 cells a side (starts at 32)
Output: PNG, one 16-bit grey channel, 1024 or 512 px square
Terrain: Mountains · Hills · Islands · Canyon · Plains · Volcano · Craters · Dunes · River valley · Plateau · Lake basin · Coast
Art styles: Pixel art · Minecraft blocky · Rounded / chibi · Cartoon · American comic · Rubber hose · Painterly · Realistic · Flat · Low poly
Price: 4 credits per image with GPT Image 2.5 Flare (about $0.11); models that follow the sketch start at 1
Time: 21–28 s per image in the runs on this page

Why 16 bits

An 8-bit greyscale image has 256 heights. Stretched over a large terrain, that shows up as terraces on gentle slopes.

The model paints in 8 bits, so after it the heightmap is converted to a single 16-bit channel and smoothed slightly at that precision, which fills in the steps between levels. It can't add detail the model didn't paint.

Good to know

Unreal's landscape import takes the 16-bit PNG as it is. Unity's terrain import reads RAW files, so convert the PNG to 16-bit RAW first.
Heights are relative: white is the highest point, black the lowest. The real height range is set in the engine.
In Blender: add a subdivided plane, give it a Displace modifier and use the PNG as its texture.

Questions

How much terrain does one file cover?

That's up to you: the file is 1024 or 512 px square. Spread over a large area, each pixel covers more ground, so for big worlds use it as the base shape and add detail with the engine's terrain tools.

Can I use the results in a commercial game?

Yes. Our terms hand over whatever rights we hold in what you generate. Each image model also has terms of its own, so look at the one you picked, and a result that looks like an existing character or logo is still that character or logo.

Does the file say it was made with AI?

Yes, in a machine-readable tag in the file's metadata. The picture itself isn't touched.