Vulkan Implementation of Terrain Rendering Techniques

This repository explores multiple terrain rendering techniques implemented in Vulkan, each inspired by real-world engines and presentations:

1. QuadTree-based terrain rendering (Far Cry 5)
   Based on the GDC talk Terrain Rendering in Far Cry 5.
   Implements a level-of-detail system using a quadtree structure for efficient terrain rendering and culling.

2. Clipmap terrain rendering
   Uses concentric LOD rings centered around the camera.

3. Vertical error-based clipmap rendering
   Based on the GDC talk Landscape Creation and Rendering in REDengine 3.
   Improves clipmap LOD selection by incorporating vertical geometric error metrics for better visual fidelity.

4. Brute-force tessellation-based rendering
   Uses hardware tessellation shaders to render terrain without LOD optimizations.
   Simple but GPU-intensive, useful as a baseline or for prototyping.

Before rendering, the heightmap data must be serialized into a chunked format. This step converts a raw heightmap image into a set of LOD-aware terrain chunks.

Currently, the serialization process only supports square images of size X × X (e.g., 1024×1024, 2048×2048).

Use the following code to serialize the heightmap:

SerializeChunkedSettings serializeSettings;
serializeSettings.MetadataFilepath = "path/to/metadatafile.metadata";
serializeSettings.RawdataFilepath = "path/to/rawdata.rawdata";
serializeSettings.ChunkSize = 128;
serializeSettings.LODs = 5;

HeightMapDiskProcessor diskProcessor("path/to/heightmap.png", 5);
diskProcessor.serializeChunked(serializeSettings);