ppffff, Stryke9, really:
in max, w/o plugin:
-make a grid, draw the usual elevation map blabla ( greyscale map, the brighter it is, the higher the landscape will be, so white for moutains, pure black for canyons ),
-tesselate modifier on your grid ( right click on "tesselate" in the stack to deactivate it in the editor, but allow it at render, you don't want thousands of polys to slow down your stuff. after than you put tesselate to zero, to quad, to higher iteration )
-displace modifier on your grid, select your elevation map.
-basic texture for a landscape: falloff procedural
falloff type: perpendicular/parallel
direction: world Y
then replace both "none" entries with maps, procedurals, whatever. I usually have three or for levels of procedurals for that.
when you're done, copy ( not instance ) the whole material to bump and specualr level, change all the colors to black or white, then play with contrasts to achive the effects you want.
it's fast, and no need to buy an expensive or use a crappy pluggin
