Procedural Terrain Generation

Windows Forms Launcher Window

I've often been interested in groups of algorithms that offer procedural generation of gameplay environments.  There is a rather wide range for these algorithms, both in computational time and complexity.  Some algorithms, such as Diamond Square are rather trivial to implement.  Others, such as the algorithms behind the MMO Love, are obviously much more in depth.  Since I'm about to explore a hybrid of these algorithms (Perlin Noise and others) I figured I'd resort back to an old project I worked on concerning terrain generation.  The idea of the project was to act as a tool to demonstrate how certain algorithms worked and compare them (as well as get some more experience with OpenGL 4).  The final launcher looked something like that on the right.  A drop-down of the algorithm, a radio select rendering mode, and algorithm specific settings.  The user could launch multiple windows and compare the differences.  This served as a rather effective tool for differentiating different methods and the effect of algorithm variables on the output (e.g. generating a terrain map with a decay rate of 0.3 instead of 0.7).  With a simple rotating camera and variable zoom levels, the user could inspect the final results of their work.

Diamond Square with high variation and low decay

It was nice to have effective proof of the weaknesses these algorithms have.  For example, Diamond Square in it's normal form, is prone to artifacts (especially with typical linear congruential number generation) and frequently builds mountains.  We also found sequential random additions was decent at generating rolling hills, but not smooth ones that often resembled cones.

All in all, procedural worlds won't replace the mapmaker anytime soon, but they are a powerful tool, and can serve as a nice base that can be tweaked and remodeled later.  I'd recommend game programmers become familiar with Diamond Square and Perlin Noise at the very least.

With a greater decay and lower variation

Wireframe View

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