Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to TerraForge3D
Free Opensource Procedural 3D Modelling and Texturing Tool
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. TerraForge3D launched in 2021; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1TF
It's free to play on steam, but you'll need a computer with a dedicated graphics card. I just released a new version after first releasing it 18 months ago. It's been a hard slog to scrounge time as it's not my day job but that's life. There's a ton of obvious improvements in the future (weather systems, temperature, varying rainfall, ice/snow, more biomes, more plate tectonics, lava, etc) but all suggestions/feedback is welcome.
2023 · store.steampowered.com · its alternatives →
- 2GA
For the past three years I've been building what I hope will be the next Blender, tackling the lack of any good 2D design or image editing tools outside the Adobe monopoly. This was our first year participating in Google Summer of Code and this Q3 update includes the big payoff from that, covering the most progress we've made so far as a project. If you're a Rust dev, consider getting involved as we apply for the next GSoC in the new year— you could be our intern next summer :) Q3 progress report: https://graphite.rs/blog/graphite-progress-report-q3-2024/
2024 · graphite.rs · its alternatives →
- 3LP
Took a break from the falling sand simulation blog posts this week to work on another small project. It's a little pixel world generator- each time you visit, you'll see a new little world. I really like this stuff and had a blast building it yesterday!
2022 · jason.today · its alternatives →
- 4
Create your own 3D printable scenery, buildings and dungeons
2021 · its alternatives →
- 5CA
I'm currently developing Chili3D, an open-source, browser-based 3D CAD application. By compiling OpenCascade to WebAssembly and integrating Three.js, Chili3D delivers near-native performance for powerful online modeling, editing, and rendering—all without local installation. Access it here: https://github.com/xiangechen/chili3d Features: Modeling Tools: Create basic shapes (boxes, cylinders, cones, etc.), 2D sketches (lines, arcs, circles, etc.), and perform advanced operations (boolean operations, extrusion, revolution, etc.). Snapping and Tracking: Precisely snap to…
2025 · its alternatives →
- 6IB
I've been working on an MMORPG that is now in alpha as a solo developer. Here are the major open source technologies that I use: Blender - 3D modeling software for creating the overall environment and every game object. I've gotten a lot of CC and Public Domain assets from https://poly.pizza GLTF - I export assets from blender to the GLTF asset format JSON - I write a JSON config for every game object that describes things like its name, its interactions, its collisions, etc. Node.js exporter - I iterate over the environment and every asset to create a scene hierarchy. I use…
2024 · alpha.reconquer.online · its alternatives →
- 7AC
Nov 2025 · terra.layoutit.com · its alternatives →
- 8G3
I made a web app to generate 3D models of real places on earth from land cover and elevation data. Click anywhere on the map to get a polygon, and then click "generate". It should work at most scales, but if your watershed or region selection is too large, the result can be less exciting because it's so flat. As a warning, the 3D models can sometimes be too much for my phone. It's nicer on desktop. I'm still working better on mobile support. The land cover data I'm using gives a cool effect, but at some point I'd like to add in global imagery and clouds. The backend is a Python thread…
2025 · topography.jessekv.com · its alternatives →
- 9PG
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10
- 11SM
It's been closed source for a long time while I worked on it on and off as a hobby research project, but yesterday the repo was made public for the first time under the MPL 2.0 license. A feature reel showing its capabilities can be found here: https://ktstephano.github.io/rendering/stratusgfx/feature_re... A technical breakdown of a single frame can be found here: https://ktstephano.github.io/rendering/stratusgfx/frame_anal... It's still in a very beta state (bugs and instability expected), but I felt like it was a good time to make it…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 12
FreeCAD 1.1▲218Extremely powerful, completely free 3D CAD modeling
Mar 2026 · wiki.freecad.org · its alternatives →
- 13TA
2020 · terrastruct.com · its alternatives →
- 14LO
Hi HN, we're Lucas and Lucas, the authors of Layerform (https://github.com/ergomake/layerform). Layerform is an open-source tool for setting up development environments using plain .tf files. We allow each engineer to create their own "staging" environment and reuse infrastructure. Whenever engineers run layerform spawn, we use plain .tf files to give them their own "staging" environment that looks just like production. Many teams have a single (or too few) staging environments, which developers have to queue to use. This is particularly a problem when a system is large,…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 15GA
Google released an API in May to get fetch 3D Tiles of anywhere on Earth. Using this in standard 3D engines like Blender is tricky because (1) the tiles are in a geographic coordinate system (2) you get a lot of little tiles at varying quality levels I wanted to simplify this so all you need to do is get an API key, select a map region and a zoom level, and get one combined glTF file that you can throw into any engine. Especially if you're just prototyping and want to see how this data looks in your engine before investing in figuring out all the nuances of the API & coordinate system. (Note…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16SO
2024 · playcanvas.com · its alternatives →
- 17
- 18OS
Hey HN! I'm Zach from Adam (https://adam.new/). We’re building an AI co-pilot for mechanical CAD software. As part of our broader research, we built a browser-based Text-to-CAD app (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44182206) and are now open sourcing it. This is a React SPA with a Supabase backend. What it does: * Generates parametric 3D models from natural language descriptions, with support for both text prompts and image references * Outputs OpenSCAD code with automatically extracted parameters that surface as interactive sliders for instant dimension…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 19DM
This is a D&D map making tool I've been working on for a while now, but I just added some new features to the beta that I think HN users might find neat. When building a world map, you can use "Dynamic Brushes" to draw organic looking terrain. This is achieved entirely with svg filters and javascript canvas, no fancy libraries or anything. This came with a pretty large rewrite of some of the underlying code, so I'm sure there's a number of bugs I haven't come across, but I'd love to hear your opinions on it!
2023 · dungeonmapdoodler.com · its alternatives →
- 20IM
Over the last 4 years I've been developing Skyformer, including making all the art. Technical features include: - OpenGL for graphics, OpenAL for sound, GLFW for input - Terrain rendered using techniques inspired by REDengine 3 with a custom terrain/world editor. - Networking framework for co-op with TCP + custom binary protocol - Immediate mode UI framework, SDF text rendering - Cascaded shadow mapping with soft shadows. - Weather simulation (with my own fake physics) - Dynamic skydome - Water based on Gerstner waves - Swept-sphere collision detection and response - Soft-particles…
2025 · store.steampowered.com · its alternatives →
- 21DP
My cousin and I love the Terraforming Mars board game. But we'd often get overly excited and knock our pieces off of our boards, losing track of our progress. So I digitised it. It comes with a few cool features like resource conversions (e.g. converting plants to greenery), production phase, offline, mobile-friendly and keeps track of the history using the browser history itself. Sharing this here in case there are any other TM fans that could also find some use in this :)
2024 · terraforming-mars-player-board.netlify.app · its alternatives →
- 22
- 23IM
Hi. I made a video crash course about Terraform 0.12. It's one of four I want to do. I would love to show you what I've made so far and get your feedback and thoughts. The course is financially free but does require an email to signup (a limitation of the platform I'm using): https://www.thecloud.coach/terraform-crash-course Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.
2019 · its alternatives →
- 24
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →