Autodesk 3ds Max can create procedurally generated images like the cornstalks in front of this house. Image courtesy of Paul Neale.
Procedural generation is a technique used in animation, visual effects, game development, and many other fields to create digital content algorithmically instead of manually designing it. For example, procedural generation in visual effects can be used to create a modular crystal growth system.
Procedural generation uses algorithms and rules to create content for films and games.
The concept of 3D procedural generation has evolved over decades, with early examples dating back to the 1960s and 1970s. It gained prominence in video games through titles like Rogue and became widely recognized with the release of Minecraft and No Man's Sky. Procedural generation is now an integral part of creating dynamic and diverse game content.
Procedural generation offers game developers a toolkit for creating a range of assets—everything from terrain, level layouts, and textures to characters, items, and quests—to enhance gameplay variability and development efficiency.
Procedural generation is a vital tool for VFX pros tasked with bringing fantastical visions to life on big or small screens. In the film and TV industry, 2D and 3D procedural techniques are applied primarily in visual effects, where they assist in generating realistic simulations of natural phenomena like combustion, snow or particles, crowd behavior, and virtual environments.
Additionally, algorithms can contribute to soundscapes and music generation and, in some experimental cases, can generate scripts.
Film VFX artists can create complex virtual environments with procedural generation. Image courtesy of Henry Yamin.
Procedural generation has been used extensively in films in recent years. But what exactly is it used for?
Crowd/battle scenes
The Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies was widely lauded for its complex battle scenes; the filmmakers used procedural generation to create thousands of CGI warriors for shots without creating and placing them individually.
Specific VFX elements
Unlike procedurally generated games, the visual effects in films look the same every time you watch them. Using procedural generation to create film effects gives directors many options to choose from when inserting VFX. The infamous pit in 300, for example, was created in this way, allowing the team to tweak particular aspects of the look without doing it by hand.
There are many different types of procedurally generated games:
One of the first types of procedurally generated games was the Rogue-like roleplaying game. The name derives from the 1980 game Rogue, which saw players crawl through ever-changing procedurally generated dungeons.
Games in which players must continuously survive while roaming a vast map, such as Don’t Starve, need to keep players interested for the long haul—procedurally generated maps make this possible.
Many indie platform games, such as Spelunky, use 2D procedural generation to build the platforms, terrains, enemies, and powerups that the player interacts with.
Sandbox games have no fixed goals, allowing players to explore and play as they see fit. One of the most popular games of all time, Minecraft, is a sandbox game that uses procedurally generated worlds to provide the canvas players can build upon.
Scale your studio’s rendering and simulation capabilities, while equipping artists with powerful modeling and animation tools
Some key advantages of procedural generation include:
Procedural generation can create vast amounts of content quickly and efficiently, reducing the need for manual design and content creation. This is particularly valuable for quickly generating custom visual effects or environments.
In video games, procedural generation provides a high degree of variability and randomness, making each playthrough or interaction unique. This allows for the creation of responsive and adaptive environments and experiences.
Procedural generation can adapt content to different hardware specifications, screen sizes, or player preferences, helping to ensure a consistent experience across devices and platforms.
Procedural generation reduces the storage requirements for game assets because generated content is created algorithmically at runtime. This can save storage space and reduce load times.
Pixomondo used Bifrost for Maya to procedurally generate a fantastical forest environment in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Image courtesy of Pixomondo.
With Autodesk solutions at the heart of its pipeline, global virtual production and visual effects studio Pixomondo has helped streamline VFX delivery on many tentpole projects like Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
Go from beginner to pro with this comprehensive video series on procedural generation techniques using Bifrost for Maya.
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The creation of terrain is a classic example of procedural generation in video games. Algorithms for AI terrain generation create realistic or fictional landscapes—such as mountains, valleys, and plains—using procedural techniques. Games such as Minecraft and No Man’s Sky use procedural terrain generation to create vast, diverse worlds where each playthrough results in a unique landscape. This provides a sense of exploration and discovery and efficiently generates expansive game worlds without the need for manual design.
Procedural generation is an algorithmic approach that systematically generates content based on predefined rules and parameters, allowing controlled variability and purposeful design. It’s repeatable and provides structure to content creation. In contrast, random generation relies solely on chance, introducing unpredictability and uncontrolled variability into the content. It is non-repeatable, creating different outcomes each time. The choice between procedural and random generation depends on the need for structured, designed content (procedural) or purely random, unpredictable outcomes (random).
Procedural generation is primarily based on algorithms and predefined rules to create content systematically, but it can also incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to enhance its capabilities. AI can be used for pattern recognition, adaptability to user interactions, creating entities with complex behaviors, improving content quality, generating narratives, and validating generated content. This combination of procedural generation and AI allows more sophisticated and dynamic content creation in various applications, including video games and simulations, by adding learning, adaptability, complexity, and quality control to the generated content.
Procedural generation is not a single algorithm but a general approach to content creation. It uses algorithms, mathematical formulas, and predefined rules to generate content systematically. The specific algorithms and techniques used in procedural generation vary depending on the type of content being created, whether it’s AI terrain generation, textures, patterns, structures, or more.
