Procedural synthesis

In computer science, procedural synthesis or procedural generation refers to methods for generating program content such as textures , virtual worlds, 3D objects and even music in real time and during the execution of the computer program , without this content being firmly established by the developer before use and in its final form Form to be passed on to the user. The content is by no means generated randomly , rather the generation follows deterministic algorithms in order to be able to generate the same content over and over again with the same starting conditions. This gives the developer the opportunity to develop and pass on extremely extensive and complex content in a time- and space-saving manner.

Procedural synthesis is not to be confused with procedural programming .

Application examples

In computer games in particular , procedural synthesis is used to create extensive and complex worlds and landscapes that look the same every time the game is started, but can also be easily changed and expanded using the synthesis parameters .

Some examples are given below:

• Early examples of the use of procedural synthesis are Elite (1984) and The Sentinel (1986). The eight game galaxies in Elite are procedurally generated from six bytes, including coordinates, planet names, size, etc. In the sequel to Frontier: Elite 2 (1993), a virtual Milky Way with 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) solar systems was procedurally generated.

• In the space simulation Space Engine , unmapped regions of the universe are procedurally generated. So it is possible for Space Engine to fill galaxies with billions of stars and planets each and also calculate their surfaces procedurally, but the storage space consumption is only 500 MB.

• In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion , the vegetation of the game world is generated procedurally. This is an example of a hybrid use of procedural synthesis: the position and properties of the vegetation are determined by the synthesis, but the textures of the trunks and leaves are then loaded from image files designed by artists during the development of the game, rather than being synthesized as well.

• The future MMORPG Infinity: The Quest For Earth is based on a realistically dimensioned, procedurally generated galaxy with billions of planetary systems , each of which includes countless astronomical objects such as planets and asteroids . The enormous dimensions and numbers of objects that are as unique as possible (in the development status of July 2007, a so-called octree (a tree with eight child nodes per node) with 14 levels was used for the identification of the asteroids per solar system, with many hundreds to several thousand asteroids per node (which allows a total number of objects on the order of per octree) makes it literally impossible to determine the position and appearance of each entity. The game is being developed by a single programmer, Flavien Brebion, (and a few assisting artists and modelers). ${\displaystyle 10^{15}}$

• The game Minecraft also works with procedural synthesis, whereby other procedures such as the Perlin noise function are used to create the theoretically unlimited landscape. The procedural synthesis is limited here only by a random value based on the time and by various variables. On the one hand, the procedural synthesis can save a lot of storage space and, on the other hand, the individuality of the game through the unpredictable worlds can be given.

• The procedural synthesis is of particular importance in the demo scene , in which the most complex programs possible with as little memory requirements as possible represent the development goal. The first person shooter .kkrieger from the German demo group Farbrausch , which is completely based on procedural generation, has a memory requirement of just under 96 kilobytes , despite surprisingly good graphic quality and game scope , which roughly corresponds to a fifty-thousandth of the memory requirement of a modern commercial shooter (calculation basis: a DVD-5 ). The developers assume that the game would have taken up around 200 to 300 megabytes if procedural synthesis had not been used. In 2006 kkrieger won the innovation prize of the jury of the German Developer Prize.

• The shooter Borderlands , released in October 2009, provides the user with around 17 million procedural firearms that also have different properties.

• The game No Man's Sky presented at E3 2014 creates models for trees, dinosaurs or spaceships using just a few prototypes. Individual planets and the entire solar system are also generated through procedural synthesis. This makes it possible to create over a trillion (= 10 ¹⁸ ) planets.

• In Star Citizen (2015), entire planets are procedurally created.

See also

• Referential transparency
• Streaming from the hard drive as a tool for hybrid procedural synthesis without an interrupting loading screen
• Image synthesis
• Texture synthesis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ www.frontier.co.uk Elite. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 27, 2011 ; accessed on October 16, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Oblivion: Full spectrum content, from hand-generated to procedural. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 9, 2011 ; accessed on October 16, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Developer log. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on October 16, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
4. ↑ Infinity Overview. Retrieved October 16, 2011 . 
5. ↑ warrior. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 17, 2011 ; Retrieved October 16, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ → Hall of Fame → Prize Winner. (Site requires Adobe Flash ). Retrieved October 16, 2011 . 
7. ↑ Gearbox interview: Randy Pitchford on Borderlands' 17 million guns. In: Computer and Video Games. July 28, 2009, archived from the original on August 3, 2009 ; accessed on October 16, 2010 (English). 
8. ↑ No Man's Sky - Developers explain the procedural engine. In: Computer and Video Games. June 23, 2014, accessed September 3, 2015 . 
9. ↑ World Without End. In: Computer and Video Games. May 18, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015 . 
10. ↑ 18 quintillion planets: The video game that imagines an entire galaxy. In: Computer and Video Games. June 18, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015 .