Procedural generation

These are my bookmarks on procedural generation and topics closely related to it, mostly from the 2010s.

I have marked the items with plain-text tags. I use “[example]” for examples and code snippets. Other tags should be self-explanatory.

AngelCAD. “AngelCAD is a powerful open source 3D solid modeller based on the Constructive Solid Geometry [CSG] modelling technique, expressed in the AngelScript language.” [software]
Antimony. “Antimony is a computer-aided design [CAD] tool from a parallel universe in which CAD software evolved from Lisp machines rather than drafting tables.” [software]
“Distance functions”, Inigo Quilez2011. [article]
“Function representation” or “FRep”. [article]
VoxelDesc. A command line-driven voxel editor. No longer maintained. [software]

“CityDreamer: Compositional Generative Model of Unbounded 3D Cities”, Haozhe Xie et al.2023. [article]
City Map Generator. Creates maps, heightmaps, and 3D models of American-style cities in the browser. [software]
“Cubic cityscape #1”, reinder2018. A tunable turtle graphics effect. [example]
“Extreme D&D DIY: adventures in hypergeometry, procedural generation, and software development (part 2)”, Said Achmiz2024. This blog post examines the problem of generating good D&D combat maps for the vast and desolate city of Lacc from the adventure Gates of Oblivion. The author refines a solution in JavaScript step by step with detailed critique. [article]
“Generating an infinite world with the Wave Function Collapse algorithm”, Marian Kleineberg2023. [article]
“Procedural City”, Shamus Young2009. [article]
Voyager3, Brendan Zabarauskas. “Explorations into procedural village and landscape generation”. [blog]

Liminal. “An in-house prototyping game engine for no-static-assets procedural games…” No longer maintained. [software]
ZGameEditor. “Create games that have a redistributable size of only 64kb or less using procedural content. The game engine use OpenGL for graphics and a real time synthesizer for audio.” [software]

“Beyond the Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification System, Part I: Extensions and Alternatives”, Nikolai Lofving Hersfeldt2024. [article]
Cylindrical World Generator. “Watch a world be born or make your own edits”. [software]
“Generating fantasy maps”, Martin O’Leary2016. An article with embedded (open source) demonstrations. [article] [example]
gaia. An Earth-like world generator in Haxe + Flixel. [software]
“How does Cave/Glade Generator Work”, Boris2023. Explains how Watabou’s cave map generator works. [article]
{Shan, Shui}*. Procedurally-generated infinitely-scrolling vector Chinese landscape paintings for the browser. [software]
proclib. “A library and syntax language for structure-centric world/map generation.” [software]
“Realistic terrain in 130 lines”, Hunter Loftis2014. [article] [example]
World Builder Page. A collection of tools for landscape creation and visualization. [software]
WorldEngine. A world generator based on geological and climate simulations. [software]

“Bytebeat”, Kragen2012. Music that comes from simple waveform generators. [article] [links]

Filter Forge. Procedural texture editor that works as a standalone application or an Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo plug-in. Proprietary. [software]
Genetica. “[T]he world’s most powerful editor of seamless textures, animated textures, and HDRI environment maps”. Proprietary and defunct. [software]
Material Maker. Open-source graph-based procedural texture editor based on the Godot Engine. Exports to Godot, Unity, and Unreal Engine. [software]
NeoTextureEdit. Open-source graph-based procedural seamless texture editor. [software]
Tiny Texture Tumbler. Open-source JavaScript procedural texture library with an editor that runs in the browser. “Mainly useful for file size restricted competitions.” [software]

2D Tree Generator. “Procedurally generate 2D or 3D trees using multiple particles with defined behaviours.” [software]

PixiVisor. “PixiVisor is a tool for experimenting with the transmission of video over audio.” [software]

“Debris: Opening the box”, Fabian “ryg” Giesen2012. An exploration of how the demoscene group “farbrausch” made fr-041: debris. [article]
Inconvergent, anders hoff. A generative art project. Contains the artist’s gallery and a series of illustrated articles on generative algorithms. [article] [example]
The Nature of Code, Daniel Shiffman2012. 2nd Edition2023. A course that teaches programming simulations of natural systems with Processing (first edition) or p5.js (second). [book]
Procedural Content Generation in Games, Noor Shaker, Julian Togelius, and Mark J. Nelson2016. “A textbook and an overview of current research.” [book]
Procedural generation subreddit. [links]
Procedural World, Miguel Cepero. “Following one man’s task of building a virtual world from the comfort of his pajamas. Discusses Procedural Terrain, Vegetation and Architecture generation. Also OpenCL, Voxels and Computer Graphics in general.” [blog]
ProcGen Tumblr, Clyde Shaffer. [blog]