Perlin noise 3D Terrain rendered top down with basic lighting

Zoom Out = 10

Due to the high zoom out factor the normals average out and we get a flat grey picture as one would expect.

Zoom Out = 1

With no zoom, we can begin to see the geometry of the picture.

Zoom Out = 0.1

At this increased zoom we can recognise the picture as a rough surface.

Zoom Out = 0.01

With this level of zoom we recognise a highly detailed 3D terrain.

Zoom Out = 0.001

A close up view of one of the "mountains" in the picture. We can begin to see artifacts in the rendering due to the simplistic way in which the normals are calculated.

Zoom Out = 0.0001

We have zoomed in enough that the surface begins to look smooth. The artifacts are now clearly visible.

I am happy with the achievement of perlin noise 3D terrain rendering with simple lighting and it is impressive how one can zoom in alot and get plenty of detail.

Possible improvements include better normal calculation so that the artifacts aren't present, more interesting detail at the highest level of zoom so it still looks real, and 3D camera control.