Some semi-random thoughts on terrain generation

[xoft]

Make sure your amplitude noise is right - that it has the right frequency and amplitude itself. You want a low-frequency noise with output values in range [0.5, 1.5], so if you were using cPerlinNoise, you'd use something like:

noise.AddOctave(0.01, 0.3);
noise.AddOctave(0.02, 0.15);
noise.AddOctave(0.04, 0.05);
// Sum of second params should be 0.5,
// then noise generates values in range [-0.5, +0.5]
...
value = 1 + noise.GetValue(x, z);