So I started working on prototyping some terrain rendering for the next Terrarium.  It really is amazing how much faster one can work in Managed DirectX (Direct3D in this case) vs. the C++ API.  While the screenshot below is not terribly impressive, it only took me about 2 hours to get the base framework up and running.  This would have taken much longer using C++.  I'll try to post some regular updates as I try various techniques for the terrain.