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Procedural Content

Procedural Content. SET09115 Intro to Graphics Programming. Breakdown. What is procedural content? Models Textures Working with noise Perlin noise Examples Procedural content. Recommended Reading. Search the inter-webs Real-Time Rendering mentions in passing

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Procedural Content

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  1. Procedural Content SET09115 Intro to Graphics Programming

  2. Breakdown • What is procedural content? • Models • Textures • Working with noise • Perlin noise • Examples • Procedural content

  3. Recommended Reading • Search the inter-webs • Real-Time Rendering mentions in passing • Course text mentions in passing

  4. What is Procedural Content?

  5. What do we mean by Procedural Content? • Generally, it is considered that artists are the creators of content for games • Models, textures, etc. • Programmers generally use content produced by artists within games • The goal of procedural content is to allow a programmer to generate content using some form of algorithm • The procedural part

  6. Terrain • We have actually already spoken about procedural content • Terrain • Terrain is generated procedurally from a texture • The texture can be created procedurally also

  7. Models • One part of procedural content generation is the generation of models • In a way, this is what Spore does • Model creation can be quite powerful for more tedious content generation

  8. Cities • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d2-PtK4F6Y

  9. Trees • Speed Tree - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r18c7QlWLBQ • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98HAIwJRxyU

  10. Fractals • Fractals are a common approach to create trees and other natural content • Fractals are considered to be a particular construct that can be broken down, but each part still being a representation of the whole • Self-similarity

  11. Noise • Noise is a technique usually used to generate textures • Depending on the noise function, different patterns can appear • Noise functions are often used to generate terrain, or apply roughness to a model

  12. Textures • Another common approach is to generate a texture using an algorithm • The texturing practical generates a black and white check pattern • Noise is generally generated into a texture, and then used

  13. Questions?

  14. Working with Noise

  15. Working with Noise • As mentioned, noise is a very common approach to generating procedural content • Graphics cards have a noise function to generate procedural noise • Although considered random, remember a computer cannot really generate a random number • Based on a seed value

  16. Perlin Noise • Developed by Ken Perlin • Perlin noise is used to generate gradient noise • There is smooth transition of heights between pixels • First used in Tron, useful for low memory situations if you use a fixed seed

  17. From Noise to Texture • Once you have noise generated, you can store it in a texture • Texture is just a greyscale image represented by the noise function • The texture can now be used for further content

  18. Texture to Geometry • We have already discussed this idea • Take a grid of triangles • Manipulate the height of the vertices based on some value of the texture • Colour intensity works well • The new triangle grid to represent a terrain • Noise texture can also be used in a more abstract manner • Placement of trees • Placement of buildings

  19. Example - Civilization

  20. Example – Sim City

  21. Questions?

  22. Procedural Content

  23. Procedural Content Wiki • http://pcg.wikidot.com/

  24. Questions?

  25. To do this week… • I’m not going to produce a practical for this week or next • Concentrate on the coursework • I will put the practicals together and post on WebCT over the next few weeks • So you can see what to do • I’ve added some new geometry code to WebCT • Drawing spheres and torus’ for lighting and texturing

  26. Summary • Procedural content is fun! • There is a lot of interest here • Speeds up general development • Really, it’s about working with a particular algorithm to generate the content you want • Can be random / noise based • Can be more structured • Elite did this

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