Terrain relief and analysis

Terrain layers

Location

Visualization

Browse terrain layers

Find a terrain measure or relief method

Raster previews: same Wasatch tile. Regional tools: illustrative diagrams.

Method and limitations

Analysis resolution

Analysis resolutionTarget ground resolution · m/cellVisible fine-tile budget

Native DEM tiles are analyzed and drawn directly.

Open Mapterhorn viewer here ↗

Relief recipes

Saved visualization and slider settings. Keeps your calculation backend.

Research presets

Selected layer controls

Display range

Black pointWhite point

Midtones · gamma1.00

Below 1 brightens midtones; above 1 darkens them.

Color adjustments

Lightness+0.00Chroma100%

Lightness lifts or lowers palette colors. Chroma changes their color intensity; 0% is gray.

Base palette

Displayed

Blend 0 = hillshade; 1 = full sculpted recipe. Shadow fill lifts the hillshade shadows.

ShadowHighlight

More controls

Diffuse sky model

3D height exaggeration1×

3D terrain drapes the current shading over elevation. Height exaggeration changes the mesh; shading exaggeration changes the lighting.

Calculation backend

Recompute surrounding terrain for each lighting update.

Standalone regional analysis ↗

Implementation list

Local and regional tools share this layer browser. Regional layers follow the map or stay in a locked area; viewsheds and exposure use a point you place. Map-wide solar and broader engine integration remain tracked.

Full method list and backend plan ↗
Where the code lives and remaining stages ↗

Compare performance

Device benchmark

Include fresh DEM downloads

Load terrain first. Measures one tile with identical data and recipe.

What changes across the whole map?

The same light × sky visibility × slope blend now follows every visible Mapterhorn tile. Neighbor tiles supply the horizon calculation across tile edges. Source resolution still varies geographically; zooming in beyond native tiles adds no detail.

All tiles share one contrast calibration sampled from the original Huger DEM. This avoids per-tile contrast seams and changing tones as you pan. It approximates the patch’s1–99% stretch with64×64 samples; it is not a pixel-identical reproduction of the local2018 PNG.

Cached bins store terrain rise/distance in16 or32 directions. Sun, exaggeration, blend and palette changes reuse them. Changing radius or quality rebuilds them. The cache is bounded, so revisiting evicted tiles may rebuild.

Folia WASM bins run the same canonical Rust kernel serially in a browser worker, then upload the bins to the same GPU coloring shader. No horizon server is needed. GPU bins use browser sampling; Folia Rust bins are generated by the repository’s canonical Rust horizon kernel through the local server. Both store natural-terrain horizons and apply exaggeration when shading. Folia’s raster sampler is distinct from the native HORAYZON Embree algorithm. It samples a local raster neighborhood, without distant terrain or Earth-curvature calculations. HORAYZON research.

Benchmarks exclude downloads, DEM decoding and map composition. They include synchronized shader execution, RGBA readback and driver overhead; PNG export is listed separately. Actual GPU/browser speeds vary.

Research methods & sources

SVF counts visible sky; diffuse illumination also weights sky brightness and surface orientation. Positive openness includes downhill horizons.

VAT follows the published grayscale layer order and opacities. Browser sampling, one shared meter radius and omitted RVT noise filtering make these adaptations, not pixel-exact RVT outputs. Native/WASM bins supply nonnegative horizons; signed openness is an extra GPU calculation.

Sky-view factor (2011) · VAT blends (2019) · Upstream blend recipe · Diffuse sky (2006) · Mapterhorn viewer source

Starting the terrain shader…

Loading elevation tiles…