That's basically what I meant, Just basic landscape will be enough for me.
If I remember right, KSP ( kerbal Space program ) simply make the landscape out of a Heightmap shader. I guess it can be used the same way.
KSP uses a procedural quad tree system (Designed by Mu, who is a code wizard), and is based off a coherent noise field, that is much higher resolution then a texture could be.
Though, for the purposes of LOD, when you're far enough away from a planet, you're seeing a baked version of the terrain. The noise is sampled to generate a diffuse texture, normal map, and vertex displacements.