Overview

GenBrush is a cartography program for world-builders, game designers, artists, DnD/Pathfinder enthusiasts, hobbyists and writers. Whether you want to create a small island, large continent, or a whole planet, GenBrush has powerful tools to help aid the process.

Please feel welcome on our Discord server! Feel free to ask questions and take a look at our showcase channel. There are also resources available via Discord, such as a beginner's tutorial series, and of course our amazing community.

I'm active on Twitter, so if you'd like to have a look at some neat screenshots and keep up-to-date on what I'm working on, smash that follow button!

Features

GenBrush does a great many things, but these are the headlines:

• Paint with height, not colour. Maps are comprised of height data, meaning changes to topology are automatically recoloured. Changes to colour schemes and rendering options don't affect the underlying topography.
• Separates painting from world projection and distortion - you can paint distortion-free and worry about it later when you put your world map together.
• Simulates different kinds of erosion, such as wind, fluid flow and hydraulic processes.
• Render in 3D as a displaced terrain mesh, or as a planet. Export these meshes and use them in games or external 3D rendering applications such as Blender.
• Effects and filters, such as ambient occlusion, shadowing, contour lines and hex grids.
• Generators exist for generating enormous quantities of height data. There are many different kinds of fractals to choose from and they all serve as a wonderful starting point for a new map.
• Scriptable brushes and effects give you an enormous degree of control over how you paint and sculpt your maps.
• Render using biome information for additional detail and variety.

GenBrush is still being actively developed. There are plenty more features on the way, and some of its existing features are a work in progress.

System Requirements

Frameworks

GenBrush runs on the .Net framework, which you will need to download and install prior to running it. Most Windows 10 installations will already have the .Net framework installed, but double-check you have the latest .Net runtime just in case. Linux users will need to use the Mono framework instead, but the same rules apply. Linux users should also note that Mono seems to work better for GenBrush than Wine.

OpenGL

GenBrush does most of its heavy lifting on your graphics card. This makes it extremely fast and exceedingly powerful, however it also means your graphics card needs to be capable of running it. Double-check that your graphics card and driver are capable of running OpenGL version 4.3 or higher.

Some older cards and drivers are given 'compatibility patches' designed to ensure they meet the minimum requirements for newer OpenGL versions. If this is the case for you, they may claim they run OpenGL 4.3, but might not do it very well.

I've built a small tool designed to take the guesswork out of all of this. You can check it out here:

https://mavichist.itch.io/genbrushbenchmarker

Beta Testing

Beta testing of the program is an optional way to support the ongoing development of GenBrush. Beta testers have access to experimental tools and features that are not yet part of the public release.

You can learn more about the beta testing platform here:

https://www.patreon.com/genbrush

Logo

The GenBrush logo was created by the ever talented Jelke Ludolphij - his work is fantastic and I wholeheartedly recommend him if you're in need of graphics and illustrations!

You can find samples of his work and contact him via ArtStation!