Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Two-dimensional slice through 3D Perlin noise at z = 0. Perlin noise is a type of gradient noise developed by Ken Perlin in 1983. It has many uses, including but not limited to: procedurally generating terrain, applying pseudo-random changes to a variable, and assisting in the creation of image textures.
The square step: For each diamond in the array, set the midpoint of that diamond to be the average of the four corner points plus a random value. Each random value is multiplied by a scale constant, which decreases with each iteration by a factor of 2 −h, where h is a value between 0.0 and 1.0 (lower values produce rougher terrain). [2]
Using procedural generation in games had origins in the tabletop role playing game (RPG) venue. [4] The leading tabletop system, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, provided ways for the "dungeon master" to generate dungeons and terrain using random die rolls, expanded in later editions with complex branching procedural tables.
A version of scenery generator can be very simplistic. Using a diamond-square algorithm with some extra steps involving fractals an algorithm for random generation of terrain can be made with only 120 lines of code. The program in example takes a grid and then divides the grid repeatedly.
Procedural generation is a common technique in computer programming to automate the creation of certain data according to guidelines set by the programmer. Many games generate aspects of the environment or non-player characters procedurally during the development process in order to save time on asset creation.
Heightmaps can be created by hand with a classical paint program or a special terrain editor. These editors visualize the terrain in 3D and allow the user to modify the surface. Normally there are tools to raise, lower, smooth or erode the terrain. Another way to create a terrain is to use a terrain generation algorithm.
In computer graphics, marching squares is an algorithm that generates contours for a two-dimensional scalar field (rectangular array of individual numerical values). A similar method can be used to contour 2D triangle meshes.
Frequently implemented with a stack, this approach is one of the simplest ways to generate a maze using a computer. Consider the space for a maze being a large grid of cells (like a large chess board), each cell starting with four walls. Starting from a random cell, the computer then selects a random neighbouring cell that has not yet been visited.