Interactive OpenGL 3D viewer with flyby and animation capabilities. Reads most familiar US DEM formats and can export to common image and terrain formats. [Win95/98/ME/2000]

Produce and display charts of the world for users of FlightGear, an open source flight simulator. Includes map creator and atlas viewer. Can also be used stand alone. Under development, GPL. [Win32(cygwin),Linux]

A program for designing and creating virtual landscapes utilizing real map data or synthetic data from fractals. Fractals are also used to dynamically extend the data and level of detail. [Win 98/SE/Me/2k]

A cross-platform, open source terrain rendering engine. Written as a stand-alone compnent that can be easily integrated into any kind of application. [OpenGL]

Makers of G-Vista, G-Scene, G-Render Library, software components for CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/Web-productions to interactively fly over huge contiguous terrains. Target market: high end professional.

An older (1996) collection of documentation, source code, and programs for generating and visualizing terrain.

Premier demonstration site for G-Vista Web technology. '3D Flight Over Switzerland' uses 25 meter satellite imagery to build 3D scenes to be streamed and visualized over the internet.

Free program that edits, generates, and manipulates terrain height maps. These can be used in terrain renders, which are used in games, applications, and demos. Web base manual available. [Windows and Linux]

Generate, manipulate, display, load and save heightfields and then use a raytracer such as POV-Ray to generate the final output image. (free, with code) [Linux]

Visualization tool that permits the user to view RealSite (tm) models within a virtual environment. [IRIX, Win32]

IVS of the University of New Brunswick develops software specializes in interactive 3D exploration of ocean floor surfaces, submarine cable routes, and complex climate data sets. Available for download. [Win32,SGI]

A heightfield modelling tool designed to mimic Leveller for Windows. It features an OpenGL preview and many brush-like tools. (free, with code) [Linux]

Alpha version of a terrain editor/viewer for BeOS.

Heightfield, bumpmap, and terrain modeler for Windows. Has an active user community with many 3rd party plugins. Downloadable demo with limited functionality.

Earth data processing and visualization system. It can combine data from different sources and in varying formats to a single view. It is not an image processing tool but rather builds a 3dimensional model of the earth. [Win95/NT] 1997

Modeling and visualization software package that creates relief maps in both 2D and 3D using either proprietary global elevation database or public domain DEMs. Features include projections, texture draping, lighting, shading, and elevation color graduation.

Raytracing based landscape renderer with object (trees, rocks, lakes) creation, placement and animation capabilities. Interactive planimetric, and 3D modeling viewpoints. Imports USGS and STDS DEMs. [Windows and Mac]

Specializes in the import of GIS data sets and creation of a GIS viewer, which allows the user to "fly" over a 3-D image of their data sets.

A free win32 3D viewer which demonstrates Dynamic Level of Detail (DLOD), based on OpenGL and GLUT, only reads USGS DEMs. Appears to be in active development.

An experimental OpenGL interactive terrain viewer with surface textures, clouds and reflective water capabilities. (free, with code) [Win32]

Free authoring tool for virtual environment training system. A low cost PC-based system which incorporates trainee performance measurement capability. [Win9x/NT/2k]

A complete, modular software collection to serve photo-based 3D interactive environments over the internet or intranets. (free, no code) [Win9x/NT/2k]

Toolkit for building interactive real-time applications with 2D or 3D presentations, from simulators and command and control (C3I) to surveillance and traditional GIS systems. [Win9x/NT/2k]

A collection of rendering, mathematics, and texturing functions that use fractals to "grow" everything from plants to planets with seamless procedural textures. (shareware, with source code) [Requires DirectX 6.0+]

A number of scholarly pages covering visualization techniques, terrain morphing, generating fractal surfaces, data filtering, and a mars planetary model. (free, with code)

Create landscapes and texture them. Features include: Mesh sizes up to 2048x2048, 3DExploreView for normal FPS viewing and movement, Fractal Brownian Motion (fBm) Heightfields using Perlin Noise. An open-source, OpenGL-MFC program, by NEB Software.

Produce large area terrain databases with real-world data and 3D culture (eg. roads) and imagery, skin generation, and texture mapping. Target market: Professional [Win98/NT,SGI]

Plugin for Microsoft Internet Explorer to allow interactive visualization of high-resolution 3D terrain data directly over the internet.

These guys have big ideas: "A complete virtual 1:1 map of the earth." and "In a nutshell, ... the ultimate information system enabling seamless travel through space and time." Available in German and English. [Requires Flash]

Aeliom allows real time generation, rendering, illumination, and exploration of 3d virtual landscapes.

Software for visualisation of non-tangible data related to the urban environment. It may be used to construct 3D thematic 'maps' such as land use. A component of the Virtual Field Course from the U. of Leicester. [Win9x/NT/2k]

Promotes development of tools for constructing any part of the real world in interactive, 3D digital form. CAD, GIS, visual simulation, surveying and remote sensing. (free, with code) [win32, unix]

3D views and realtime virtual tours with textured and heighted features. Built on Terrain LSS, which provides 'Field-to-Finish' DTM system for surveyors and engineers. [Windows]

Create 3D landscapes using real-world data from the United States Geological Survey and extra-terrestrial data from NASA. [Win9x+]

Small program for playing with terrain data (height fields). Imports data from and to many popular file formats. Can use a number of image processing operations and height field painting tools. (Free, no code) [Win9x/NT]

Professional photorealistic terrain modeling, visualization, rendering and animation program. Create stunning, photorealistic images and animations with image object rendering. [Win9x/NT/2k/Mac/SGI]

A standalone Windows desktop utility for generating high resolution terrain databases from photo-realistic imagery, digital elevation data, and cultural feature content.