Tectonic Timelapse Map Programs?

Question

I've seen people swear by many different map makers, from Inkarnate to World Anvil to WorldEngine to Grand Designer to Terragen to Fractal Terrains and the other ProFantasy tools and on and on.

What I need to know, though, is if there are any programs out there where I can generate a planet with realistic (or at least mostly realistic) tectonics and then go backwards and forwards in time to see continental drift over millions and billions of years. I've been told GPlates and G.Projector don't do this exactly but can be made to sort of do it, but I'm looking for something a little more user-friendly lmao

I remember someone I used to know in my teens had a program that did exactly that and I can't for the life of me remember what it was (and he's a much worse person than he used to be so I'm not interested in getting in touch to see if he remembers) so I'm hoping people on here will either a) remember a program like that which was around by the mid 00s (might've been an older program tho) or b) knows which of the dozens and dozens of map/planet generators out there has what I'm looking for. Do not care if I have to pay for it, doesn't need to be free.

tl;dr I need a program that lets me see continental drift timelapses both forwards and backwards in time for worlds generated in it and hope someone on here can cut my search short so I'm not sifting through oodles of programs for weeks lmao

Posted Jun 4, 2020, 11:40 PM UTC

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