Everything you need to know to create, sculpt, and export 3D generative terrain with the Cellular Automata workstation.
Contents
Cellular Automata 3D Terrain Generator is a generative art workstation that simulates Conway-style cellular automaton rules on a 2D grid and renders the result as an interactive 3D heightmap.
Each cell on the grid has a height value (0–8). Cells grow taller as they survive longer, and collapse when a rule says they should die. The result is a living, breathing terrain that evolves in real time.
Open the Controls panel (bottom-left) to access simulation settings.
Play / Pause
Toggle the simulation running. The ▶/⏸ button is in the panel header.
Speed
Controls how many generations per second are simulated (10–100).
Regenerate
Resets the grid using the current Init Pattern and clears undo/redo history.
Cellular automata rules follow the B/S notation:
Birth (B)
A dead cell with exactly N alive neighbours is born. Toggle numbers 0–8 to set which counts trigger birth.
Survive (S)
A live cell with exactly N alive neighbours survives. All other live cells die.
Ruleset String
Type a ruleset string like B3/S23 and press Enter (or click the paste icon) to apply it instantly. Click the displayed rule string to copy it to clipboard.
Example rules: B3/S23 (Life), B36/S245 (2×2), B2/S34 (Seeds variant)
Built-in Presets — 20 curated rule combinations across four categories:
Click any preset to instantly apply its B/S rule and regenerate the grid.
My Presets
Save the current B/S rule under a custom name. Presets are stored in your browser and persist across sessions. Hover a saved preset to rename ✏ or delete 🗑.
Choose how the grid is seeded when you regenerate:
Random
Uniform random fill based on density.
Noise
Smooth perlin-style noise. Use the Noise Scale slider to control frequency.
Checker
Checkerboard pattern with random variance.
Ring
Hollow ring of cells centred on the grid.
Cross
Horizontal + vertical cross of cells.
After changing the init pattern, click ↺ Apply & Regenerate.
Palette
Uses the selected color palette mapped to cell height.
Age Gradient
Warm orange-yellow to dark red based on how tall / old each cell is.
Cycle
Hue cycles with both cell age and simulation generation number.
Palettes (only active in Palette mode):
Clicking a palette automatically switches Color Mode to "Palette".
Cell Size
0.15 – 0.60Physical size of each cell box. Smaller = more detail, larger = chunkier terrain.
Grid Size
30 – 120Number of cells per side (N×N). Larger grids are heavier on performance.
Initial Density
10% – 80%Probability that any cell starts alive when using the Random init pattern.
Background Color
Click the color swatch to open a color picker and change the canvas background.
Fog
Toggle exponential depth fog. When enabled, a second swatch controls the fog color (usually matched to the background).
The Brush Toolbar (top-right) lets you manually edit the grid.
🔄 Orbit
Default camera mode. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom.
🖌 Paint
Click or drag to set cells alive (height = 1).
🧹 Erase
Click or drag to kill cells (height = 0).
🪣 Fill
Sets cells to maximum height (8) in the brush radius.
Brush Size
Radius in cells (1–5). The brush affects all cells within a circle of that radius.
Undo — revert the last brush stroke (up to 40 steps).
Redo — re-apply a reverted stroke.
Open the Export panel (bottom-right) to save your work.
2D Exports
PNG
Flat top-down view of the current grid with palette colors.
SVG
Scalable vector version of the 2D pattern — infinite resolution.
3D Exports
Heightmap PNG
Greyscale image where brightness = cell height. Compatible with most 3D tools.
OBJ
3D mesh of the terrain. Import into Blender, Unity, etc.
💾 Saved Configurations
Save the full set of parameters (rules, palette, grid size, etc.) under a name. Reload them anytime — stored in the browser's localStorage.
Cellular Automata 3D Terrain Generator · 2026