PSA: Not every 'frontier model' demo beats 1990s procedural terrain
keenanisalive · x · 2026-09-05
keenanisalive warns that this week's frontier-model demos will be like April Fool's: some genuinely impressive, others things we could already generate in under 30 seconds since the 1990s—like procedural terrain.
He shares a render from Ken Musgrave's mid-90s MojoWorld Generator as a comparison. MojoWorld was a commercial fractal-based landscape tool that generated entire planets via a wizard interface, let users roam them in 3D like a game, and rendered 360-degree panoramas, with a devoted following among space-art artists.
Takeaway: before marveling at an 'AI-generated' landscape, check whether it's just classic procedural generation.
Related event: PSA: Some Viral AI Demos Are Just 1990s Procedural Terrain(3 posts)→
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