Module org.spongepowered.noise
Package org.spongepowered.noise.module.source

Class Perlin

java.lang.Object
org.spongepowered.noise.module.NoiseModule
org.spongepowered.noise.module.source.Perlin
public class Perlin extends NoiseModule
Noise module that outputs 3-dimensional Perlin noise.

Perlin noise is the sum of several coherent-noise functions of ever-increasing frequencies and ever-decreasing amplitudes.

An important property of Perlin noise is that a small change in the input value will produce a small change in the output value, while a large change in the input value will produce a random change in the output value.

This noise module outputs Perlin-noise values that usually range from -1.0 to +1.0, but there are no guarantees that all output values will exist within that range.

For a better description of Perlin noise, see the links in the References and Acknowledgments section.

Octaves

The number of octaves control the amount of detail of the Perlin noise. Adding more octaves increases the detail of the Perlin noise, but with the drawback of increasing the calculation time.

An octave is one of the coherent-noise functions in a series of coherent-noise functions that are added together to form Perlin noise.

An application may specify the frequency of the first octave by calling the setFrequency(double) method.

An application may specify the number of octaves that generate Perlin noise by calling the setOctaveCount(int) method.

These coherent-noise functions are called octaves because each octave has, by default, double the frequency of the previous octave. Musical tones have this property as well; a musical C tone that is one octave higher than the previous C tone has double its frequency.

Frequency

An application may specify the frequency of the first octave by calling the setFrequency(double) method.

Persistence

The persistence value controls the roughness of the Perlin noise. Larger values produce rougher noise.

The persistence value determines how quickly the amplitudes diminish for successive octaves. The amplitude of the first octave is 1.0. The amplitude of each subsequent octave is equal to the product of the previous octave's amplitude and the persistence value. So a persistence value of 0.5 sets the amplitude of the first octave to 1.0; the second, 0.5; the third, 0.25; etc.

An application may specify the persistence value by calling the setPersistence(double) method.

Lacunarity

The lacunarity specifies the frequency multiplier between successive octaves.

The effect of modifying the lacunarity is subtle; you may need to play with the lacunarity value to determine the effects. For best results, set the lacunarity to a number between 1.5 and 3.5.

References & acknowledgments

The Noise Machine - From the master, Ken Perlin himself. This page contains a presentation that describes Perlin noise and some of its variants. He won an Oscar for creating the Perlin noise algorithm!

Perlin Noise - Hugo Elias's webpage contains a very good description of Perlin noise and describes its many applications. This page gave me the inspiration to create libnoise in the first place. Now that I know how to generate Perlin noise, I will never again use cheesy subdivision algorithms to create terrain (unless I absolutely need the speed).

The Perlin noise math FAQ - A good page that describes Perlin noise in plain English with only a minor amount of math. During development of libnoise, I noticed that my coherent-noise function generated terrain with some "regularity" to the terrain features. This page describes a better coherent-noise function called gradient noise. This version of Perlin uses gradient coherent noise to generate Perlin noise.

Source Modules
This module does not require any source modules.

  • Field Details

    • DEFAULT_PERLIN_FREQUENCY

      public static final double DEFAULT_PERLIN_FREQUENCY
      Default frequency for the Perlin noise module.
      See Also:

    • DEFAULT_PERLIN_LACUNARITY

      public static final double DEFAULT_PERLIN_LACUNARITY
      Default lacunarity for the Perlin noise module.
      See Also:

    • DEFAULT_PERLIN_OCTAVE_COUNT

      public static final int DEFAULT_PERLIN_OCTAVE_COUNT
      Default number of octaves for the Perlin noise module.
      See Also:

    • DEFAULT_PERLIN_PERSISTENCE

      public static final double DEFAULT_PERLIN_PERSISTENCE
      Default persistence value for the Perlin noise module.
      See Also:

    • DEFAULT_PERLIN_QUALITY

      public static final NoiseQuality DEFAULT_PERLIN_QUALITY
      Default noise quality for the Perlin noise module.

    • DEFAULT_PERLIN_SEED

      public static final int DEFAULT_PERLIN_SEED
      Default noise seed for the Perlin noise module.
      See Also:

    • PERLIN_MAX_OCTAVE

      public static final int PERLIN_MAX_OCTAVE
      Maximum number of octaves for the Perlin noise module.
      See Also:

  • Constructor Details

    • Perlin

      public Perlin()

  • Method Details

    • frequency

      public double frequency()
      Get the frequency of the first octave.
      Returns:
      the frequency of the first octave
      See Also:

    • setFrequency

      public void setFrequency(double frequency)
      Set the frequency of the first octave.
      Parameters:
      frequency - the frequency of the first octave

    • lacunarity

      public double lacunarity()
      Get the lacunarity of the Perlin noise.

      The lacunarity is the frequency multiplier between successive octaves.

      Returns:
      the lacunarity of the Perlin noise
      See Also:

    • setLacunarity

      public void setLacunarity(double lacunarity)
      Sets the lacunarity of the Perlin noise.

      The lacunarity is the frequency multiplier between successive octaves.

      For best results, set the lacunarity to a number between 1.5 and 3.5.

      Parameters:
      lacunarity - the lacunarity of the Perlin noise

    • noiseQuality

      public NoiseQuality noiseQuality()
      Get the quality of the Perlin noise.

      See NoiseQuality for definitions of the various coherent-noise qualities.

      Returns:
      the quality of the Perlin noise
      See Also:

    • setNoiseQuality

      public void setNoiseQuality(NoiseQuality noiseQuality)
      Sets the quality of the Perlin noise.

      See NoiseQuality for definitions of the various coherent-noise qualities.

      Parameters:
      noiseQuality - the quality of the Perlin noise

    • octaveCount

      public int octaveCount()
      Get the number of octaves that generate the Perlin noise.

      The number of octaves controls the amount of detail in the Perlin noise.

      Returns:
      the number of octaves that generate the Perlin noise
      See Also:

    • setOctaveCount

      public void setOctaveCount(int octaveCount)
      Set the number of octaves that generate the Perlin noise.

      The octave count must be between 1 and PERLIN_MAX_OCTAVE, inclusive.

      The number of octaves controls the amount of detail in the Perlin noise.

      The larger the number of octaves, the more time required to calculate the Perlin-noise value.

      Parameters:
      octaveCount - the number of octaves that generate the Perlin noise
      Throws:
      IllegalArgumentException - if the octave count is out of bounds

    • persistence

      public double persistence()
      Get the persistence value of the Perlin noise.

      The persistence value controls the roughness of the Perlin noise.

      Returns:
      the persistence value
      See Also:

    • setPersistence

      public void setPersistence(double persistence)
      Sets the persistence value of the Perlin noise.

      The persistence value controls the roughness of the Perlin noise.

      For best results, set the persistence to a number between 0.0 and 1.0.

      Parameters:
      persistence - the persistence value of the Perlin noise

    • seed

      public int seed()
      Get the seed value used by the Perlin noise function.
      Returns:
      the seed value
      See Also:

    • setSeed

      public void setSeed(int seed)
      Set the seed value used by the Perlin-noise function.
      Parameters:
      seed - the seed value

    • maxValue

      public double maxValue()
      Returns the maximum value the perlin module can output in its current configuration.
      Returns:
      The maximum possible value for get(double, double, double) to return

    • get

      public double get(double x, double y, double z)
      Description copied from class: NoiseModule
      Generates an output value given the coordinates of the specified input value.

      All source modules required by this module must have been connected with the NoiseModule.setSourceModule(int, NoiseModule) method. If these source modules are not connected, this method will throw a NoModuleException.

      To determine the number of source modules required by this noise module, call the NoiseModule.sourceModuleCount() method.

      Specified by:
      get in class NoiseModule
      Parameters:
      x - the x coordinate of the input value
      y - the y coordinate of the input value
      z - the z coordinate of the input value
      Returns:
      the output value