The 3D Handbook
Part 2 — Tools The software landscapePage 39 of 248 on the reading route
Reference

Vegetation and procedural tools

A neutral directory of tree and plant generators, terrain generators and procedural world-building frameworks for games, with platforms, licences and status.

toolsvegetationterrainprocedural

Procedural tools generate content from rules instead of placing every piece by hand. Environment artists use them to grow trees and plants, erode terrain and scatter rocks and foliage across large worlds.

For the concepts, see procedural modeling, foliage and vegetation, terrain and landscapes and procedural placement and scattering. For choosing tools in general, see choosing tools: an overview; for licence types, see software licensing explained.

#Tree and plant generators

Tool Best known for in game work Platforms Licence model / status Price (as of October 2026) Free / student option
SpeedTree Long-running tree middleware, licensed for games from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to Destiny (Wikipedia); separate Games and Cinema product lines (SpeedTree Store) Windows, Mac, Linux (Games Modeler) (SpeedTree Store) Owned by Unity since 2021 ; Indie subscription for revenue under US$100K, Games Pro above, custom licensing above $1M Indie subscriptions "start at $19 per month"; Pro licences "start at $299" ; Cinema: see vendor Learning Editions with no export; 10-day evaluation
The Grove Grows trees from "a full simulation of the natural processes in living trees" (thegrove3d.com) Blender add-on (Blender 4.5 to 5) on Windows, macOS and Linux; Houdini add-on in Indie and Studio (thegrove3d.com) Perpetual ("lifetime license") for The Grove Core 2.3, with one free update; later upgrades at 30% of current price Starter €99; Indie €199; Studio €799 —
Tree It "An easy to use real time 3D tree generator" exporting FBX, OBJ and X (evolved-software.com) Windows installer (requires DirectX 9) Free; you may sell models you make with it Free Free
Sapling Tree Gen Blender add-on that "Adds a parametric tree" (extensions.blender.org) Blender 4.4 and newer, as an extension GPL v3 or later; was bundled until Blender 4.1, now "offered as it is, with limited supported" Free Free
UE Procedural Vegetation Editor (PVE) PCG-based node graph for growing Nanite-ready trees and shrubs inside Unreal; in 5.7 mainly by customising Quixel Megaplants (CG Channel; GameFromScratch), and from 5.8 also from scratch (unrealengine.com) Unreal Engine 5.7+ Built in; Experimental in 5.7 and 5.8 Included with Unreal —
Houdini + SideFX Labs Labs world-building tools for biomes, terrain, vegetation, roads and set dressing (SideFX) See modeling software Labs is free and open source and ships with Houdini (SideFX) Labs free; Houdini see below Apprentice (SideFX)
A SpeedTree tree made for the student project "Voodoo Child", at about 3,900 faces. Orbit around the crown and switch to wireframe to see how the generated trunk, branches and foliage are built.BaptisteBerard, via Sketchfab
A personal test that combines SpeedTree with photogrammetry. Compare its density, about 83,000 faces, with the lighter cypress above.BotondBencsik, via Sketchfab

#Procedural world-building and scattering

Tool Best known for Platforms Licence model / status Price (as of October 2026)
Unreal PCG framework "A toolset for creating your own procedural content and tools inside Unreal Engine" (Epic Developer Community); covers PCG Biome, GPU processing and shape grammar (Epic Developer Community) Unreal Engine Built in; production-ready since 5.7 (GameFromScratch) Included
Houdini (Indie, Core, FX) Full procedural authoring See modeling software Indie for revenue under US$100,000 (SideFX), up to 3 licences per studio; Core and FX up to 5 workstation licences per studio before volume terms (sidefx.com) See vendor (the buy page showed no prices on 22 October 2026)
Houdini Apprentice Learning Houdini See modeling software Non-commercial; renders capped at 1080p and watermarked (SideFX) Free (sidefx.com)
Houdini Engine Runs Houdini Digital Assets inside Unreal's PCG graphs (SideFX) and other hosts (SideFX) Unreal, Unity, Maya, 3ds Max Free Houdini Engine licence for the Unity and UE5 plug-ins Free for those plug-ins
SideFX Labs Game and world-building tools for Houdini (SideFX) Installs with Houdini or as packages Free and open source (SideFX) Free
Blender Geometry Nodes "Nodes that can operate on different geometry types (volume, mesh)" (Blender Manual) Windows, macOS, Linux (blender.org) Free, GNU GPL Free
Geo-Scatter Scattering plug-in for Blender; biomes also readable with the free Biome-Reader (geoscatter.com) Blender 2.83–5.2 (Superhive Market) Paid, commercial use allowed Individual $99; Team (2–6 users) $299; Studio $899

Houdini students can buy Education licences, and instructors and schools can get them free after contacting SideFX (sidefx.com: Buy Houdini).

#Terrain generators

These tools simulate erosion and export heightmaps and masks for engine landscapes. See terrain and landscapes.

Tool Best known for Platforms Licence model Price (as of October 2026) Free / student option
Gaea Node-based terrain generation in four editions (quadspinner.com) — Perpetual with free minor updates; major upgrades are paid; terrains usable "in any personal or commercial project" Indie $99 (8192 × 8192); Professional $199 and Enterprise $299 (16,384 × 16,384) Free Community edition, 1024 × 1024 builds
World Machine Terrain from "a graph of modular devices" (world-machine.com) Windows 10+, macOS 13.3+, Linux (world-machine.com) Perpetual with one year of updates Indie US$119; Professional US$299; Studio Site US$1,999 (one-time) Free Basic for non-commercial work, 1K builds
World Creator Terrain tool that runs "entirely on the GPU" for instant feedback (world-creator.com) Paid tiers Windows only; macOS and Linux announced (world-creator.com; Digital Production) Yearly rental, perpetual with paid maintenance, or lifetime; tiers by revenue Indie (under $100k a year): $59 per year, $149 perpetual (12 months of maintenance) or $379 lifetime. Professional (under $200k), Studio (under $1M) and Enterprise tiers cost more 30% academic discount on Indie and Professional ; free non-commercial Community Edition, without export, announced with version 2026.4
Instant Terra Lightweight terrain with surface water, aimed at games and real time (CG Channel) Windows only (as of version 2.5, 2022) Ultra-fast and Pro editions; site still promotes a "license for 2025" (wysilab.com) See vendor (no prices on the home page) —
Terragen 4 Planetside's landscape software, sold in Professional and Creative editions (planetside.co.uk) — Subscription or perpetual, priced by company size; Terragen 4 is still the current version Professional INDIE 50: US$10 per month, US$96 per year or US$199 perpetual; larger tiers up to US$1,020 perpetual Free educational licences for institutions and students

#Further reading and watching

References

  1. Wikipedia contributors · SpeedTree · Wikipedia, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-21
  2. Unity Technologies · SpeedTree Store: Frequently asked questions · SpeedTree Store, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  3. Unity Technologies · SpeedTree Games: Indie modeler license · SpeedTree Store, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  4. The Grove · The Grove · thegrove3d.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-21
  5. The Grove · Buy The Grove · thegrove3d.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  6. Evolved Software · Tree It · evolved-software.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-21
  7. Blender Extensions contributors · Sapling Tree Gen · extensions.blender.org, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-21
  8. Jim Thacker · Unreal Engine 5.7: five key features for CG artists · CG Channel, 2025 · article · accessed 2026-10-20
  9. GameFromScratch · Unreal Engine 5.7 Released · GameFromScratch, 2025 · article · accessed 2026-10-20
  10. Epic Games · Unreal Engine 5.8 is now available · unrealengine.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-21
  11. SideFX · SideFX Labs · SideFX, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-20
  12. SideFX · SideFX Labs (Houdini documentation) · SideFX, 2026 · docs · accessed 2026-10-20
  13. SideFX · Apprentice FAQs · SideFX, 2026 · docs · accessed 2026-10-20
  14. Epic Games · Procedural Content Generation Overview · Epic Developer Community, 2026 · docs · accessed 2026-10-20
  15. Epic Games · Procedural Content Generation Framework in Unreal Engine · Epic Developer Community, 2026 · docs · accessed 2026-10-20
  16. SideFX · Indie FAQs · SideFX, 2026 · docs · accessed 2026-10-20
  17. SideFX · Buy Houdini · sidefx.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  18. SideFX · Houdini Engine for Unreal: PCG overview · SideFX, 2026 · docs · accessed 2026-10-20
  19. Blender Foundation · Geometry Nodes (Blender 4.0 Manual) · Blender Manual, 2023 · docs · accessed 2026-10-21
  20. Blender Foundation · Blender FAQ · blender.org, 2026 · docs · accessed 2026-10-20
  21. Geo-Scatter · Geo-Scatter · geoscatter.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-21
  22. Geo-Scatter · Geo-Scatter 5.6 · Superhive Market, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  23. QuadSpinner · Compare Gaea editions · quadspinner.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  24. World Machine Software · World Machine features · world-machine.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-21
  25. World Machine Software · World Machine: Purchase · world-machine.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  26. BiteTheBytes · World Creator: Good to Know · world-creator.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-21
  27. BiteTheBytes · World Creator: Buy · world-creator.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  28. Digital Production · World Creator 4 aims for planetary terrain · Digital Production, 2026 · article · accessed 2026-10-21
  29. Jim Thacker · Wysilab ships Instant Terra 2.0 · CG Channel, 2022 · article · accessed 2026-10-21
  30. Wysilab · Instant Terra · wysilab.com, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22
  31. Planetside Software · Terragen Price List (New Pricing) · planetside.co.uk, 2026 · web · accessed 2026-10-22

Pages that link here

Last updated 2026-10-22