Talus: a 23M-parameter diffusion model for game terrain, evaluated against a real-vs-real noise floor, running in the browser on WebGPU [P]

Talus is a 23M-parameter diffusion model designed for generating game terrain, specifically 64x64 heightmaps (4 km, up to 1,200 m). It operates in the browser using WebGPU and was trained on an RTX 5060 (8 GB) for approximately 4.5 hours using 45,000 procedurally generated maps. Talus can be conditioned on terrain type and five properties: mean elevation, relief, mean slope, water fraction, and spectral slope. Current challenges include overly smooth mountains and grainy plains.

This model is notable for its small 23M parameter size and its evaluation against a real-vs-real noise floor, unlike many larger diffusion models.