Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the development state of this project?
A: The application is still under active development.
Q: Is the application stable?
A: To be transparent — the application is still under active development and may be unstable at times. We recommend saving your work frequently.
Use "Ctrl+S" to save, and "Ctrl+Alt+S" to save a timestamped backup copy. This helps protect your work in case of crashes or unexpected behavior.
Q: Why isn’t the application production-ready?
A: This project is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and it’s currently developed and maintained by just one person. As a result, things may be rough around the edges, features might be incomplete, and bugs may occur.
I'm actively looking for feedback, contributors, and help with everything — development, testing, documentation, or just sharing your experience using the app. Any support is appreciated!
Q: What’s the license, and can I use the results commercially?
A: The source code is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0). This means you're free to: - Use, study, modify, and share the software, - But if you distribute a modified version, you must also release it under the same GPL-3.0 license.
As for what you create with the app (e.g., terrain, heightmaps, meshes), you’re free to use those without any restriction, including in personal or commercial projects — no crediting required (though it's always appreciated!).
You’re not allowed to sell the app itself, or distribute/sell generated assets or presets as standalone commercial products.
Q: Are there any tutorials for Hesiod?
A: Not really — at least not yet. However, you can find a few basic video guides here:
📺 YouTube Playlist
Also, check the Releases page on GitHub. Most releases include example .hsd files at the bottom — these are often commented and self-explanatory, and can help you understand how things work.
More detailed tutorials and documentation are planned — and if you’d like to help with that, please reach out!
Q: How big can I make the terrain in the app?
A: In the desktop application, terrain size is limited to 4k × 4k cells to maintain responsive performance. Beyond that, computation becomes slow and can degrade the user experience.
To work around this, you can edit the terrain at a lower resolution (e.g., 1k × 1k) in the GUI, then use Hesiod's batch mode (headless, no GUI) to generate higher-resolution output. In batch mode, the actual limit depends on your hardware—primarily your RAM and GPU memory. As a rough estimate, resolutions up to 32k × 32k may be possible on powerful systems.