Mapgen4 vs World Machine
Mapgen4
redblobgames.com
World Machine
world-machine.comSide by side
| Figure | Mapgen4 | World Machine |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $119/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 9 |
| Spec score · Game Map Generators | 7.3 (#19) | 8.5 (#3) |
| Audience | Red Blob Games says its main audience is independent, student, and hobbyist software developers. | The maker describes the product as focused on digital terrain tools for artists and highlights game, film and visualization pipelines. |
| Founded | 2018 | 2008 |
| Maker | Red Blob Games identifies Amit Patel as its maker and says he makes interactive visual explanations of math and algorithms. | World Machine Software LLC is an independent small software company based in Seattle, Washington, founded in 2008 by Stephen Schmitt. |
| Support | The Mapgen4 page invites users to email the maker or comment on the page. | Paid licenses include one year of support and free updates, and the maker offers a help center, helpdesk and community forum. |
Plans
World Machine
- Indie$119 a month
- Professional$299 a month
- Studio Site$1,999 a month
- BasicFree
- BasicFree
- Indie$119, paid once
- Indie to Professional upgrade$180, paid once
- Professional$299, paid once
- Studio Site$1,999, paid once
In their own words
World Machine
World Machine is procedural 3D terrain-generation software for artists creating realistic or stylized landscapes, including game, film, and visualization work. Its node graph offers more than 100 devices for terrain, erosion, rivers, masks, materials, and outputs. Simulations cover flow-based and thermal erosion, snow accumulation, river channels, lakes, and coastal erosion; Dragontail Peak adds terrain with overhangs, cliff faces, and caves. Exports include heightfields, meshes, masks, and PBR textures in standard formats, with listed file types including RAW, EXR, TIFF, PNG, TER, OBJ, glTF, and GLB. Compatible tools named by the maker include Unreal Engine, Unity, Godot, Blender, Maya, and Cinema 4D. Professional and higher editions support tiled builds for worlds larger than memory and can resume builds after interruption. The free Basic edition has the Indie toolset but caps each output asset at 1025×1025 pixels and is limited to non-commercial use. Paid plans are Indie at $119 a month, Professional at $299 a month, and Studio Site at $1,999 a month. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.