Habilitationsschrift-Freiburg i. B., 1963. / Bibliography: p. [361]-402.

This work is studying real-time generation of smoke simulation based on a particle system. In order to enhance the realism of the effect, we used texture mapping (Perlin noise) and transparency disturbance to shade the 3D smoke. Furthermore, it uses simple physical function to simulate smoke movement. Classical smoke simulation is using a great amount of particles which makes computing more complex. Compared with traditional methods, the method we propose can generate realistic visual effect of smoke in real-time and reduce the time consumed.

Context: Procedural content generation shortened PCG is a way of letting the computer algorithmically generate data, with little input from programmers. Procedural content generation is a useful tool for developers to create game worlds, content and much more, which can be tedious and time-consuming to do by hand.Objectives: The procedural generation of both a city and height-mapped terrain parameter using Perlin noise and the terrain parameters effect on the city is explored in this thesis. The objective is to find out if a procedurally generated city with a heightmap parameter using Perlin noise is viable for use in games. Methods: An implementation generating both a height-mapped terrain parameter and city using Perlin noise has been created, along with that a user survey to test the generated city and terrain parameters viability in games. Results: This work successfully implemented an application that can generate cities affected with a heightmapped terrain parameter that is viable for use in games. Conclusions: This work concludes that it is possible to generate cities affected with a height-mapped terrain parameter by utilizing the noise algorithm Perlin noise. The generated cities and terrains are both viable and believable for use in games.

I denna rapport kommer vi att beskriva vår process för att utveckla ett spelprojekt som vårt examensarbete genom att vara med och tävla i Sveriges största spelutvecklartävling för studenter, Swedish Game Awards. Spelet handlar om personen Kurt, som har bestämt sig för att ge sig ut för att rädda efter sin kidnappade hund.   I denna rapport förklarar vi hur vi gick tillväga när vi fortsatte utvecklingen av ett spel samt vilka verktyg och metoder vi använde för att fullborda uppgiften, både genom de krav som ställdes från Swedish Game Awards och de krav vi bestämde själva. Vi beskriver de motgångar vi hade och hur vi lyckades lösa problemen. Slutligen kommer vi även redovisa vårt resultat och diskutera kring utvecklingen av spelet, samt dess utvecklingspotential för framtiden. / In this report we are going to describe the development process of our game that we have as our thesis. To be able to have this project as our thesis, we had to enter our game in the game development competition called “Swedish Game Awards”. This competition is only for students, giving them a place to present their game projects. The game is about a guy named Kurt, who decides to go and rescue his kidnapped dog.   We will explain how we went about developing the game and about the different tools and methods we used to complete the project. Both in terms of the demands that is needed to send our project as an entry to the Swedish Game Awards, and in terms of the requirements we decided on by ourselves. We will describe the adversity we had in our project and how we went about solving them. Finally we will also present and discuss our results from the development of the game, and its future potential for further development.

This master thesis deals with creation of library for volumetric clouds. The paper describes specific techniques for creation and rendering volumetric clouds as clouds and atmospheric scattering. For rendering this type of effects we have to cover theory for participating media.

Biological neuronal networks are a key object of study in the field of computational neuroscience, and recent studies have also shown their potential applicability within artificial intelligence and robotics [1]. They come in many shapes and forms, and a well known and widely studied example is the liquid state machine from 2004 [2]. In 2019, a novel and simple connectivity rule was presented with the introduction of the SpreizerNet [3]. The connectivity of the SpreizerNet is governed by a type of gradient noise known as Perlin noise, and as such the connectivity is anisotropic but correlated. The spiking activity produced in the SpreizerNet is possibly functionally relevant, e.g. for motor control or classification of input stimuli. In 2020, it was shown to be useful for motor control [4]. In this Master’s thesis, we inquire if the spiking activity of the SpreizerNet is functionally relevant in the context of stimulus representation. We investigate how input stimulus from the MNIST handwritten digits dataset is represented in the spatio-temporal activity sequences produced by the SpreizerNet, and whether this representation is sufficient for separation. Furthermore, we consider how the parameters governing the local structure of connectivity impacts representation and separation. We find that (1) the SpreizerNet separates input stimulus at the initial stage after stimulus and (2) that separation decreases with time when the activity from dissimilar inputs becomes unified. / Biologiska neurala nätverk är ett centralt studieobjekt inom beräkningsneurovetenskapen, och nyliga studier har även visat deras potentiella applicerbarhet inom artificiell intelligens och robotik [1]. De kan formuleras på många olika sätt, och ett välkänt och vida studerat exempel är liquid state machine från 2004 [2]. 2019 presenterades en ny och enkel kopplingsregel i SpreizerNätverket [3]. Kopplingarna i SpreizerNätverket styrs av en typ av gradientbrus vid namn Perlinbrus, och som sådana är de anisotropiska men korrelerade. Spikdatan som genereras av SpreizerNätverket är möjligtvis betydelsefull för funktion, till exempel för motorisk kontroll eller separation av stimuli. 2020 visade Michaelis m. fl. att spikdatan var relevant för motorisk kontroll [4]. I denna masteruppsats frågar vi oss om spikdatan är funktionellt relevant för stimulusrepresentation. Vi undersöker hur stimulus från MNIST handwritten digits -datasetet representeras i de spatiotemporella aktivitetssekvenserna som genereras i SpreizerNätverket, och huruvida denna representation är tillräcklig för separation.Vidare betraktar vi hur parametrarna som styr den lokala kopplingsstrukturen påverkar representation och separation. Vi visar att (1) SpreizerNätverket separerar stimuli i ett initialt skede efter stimuli och (2) att separationen minskar med tid när aktiviteten från olika stimuli blir enhetlig.

Arbetet handlar om vilken algoritm som är bäst för att procedurellt generera terräng. Är Diamond-Square bättre eller sämre än vad Perlin noise när de jämförs på exekveringstid och framkomlighet. Algoritmerna är implementerade i Unity där de körs för att få fram exekveringstid och Flood fill används för att ta reda på framkomligheten. Algoritmerna kördes 1000 gånger var på tre olika kartstorlekar för att få fram ett genomsnitt. Resultatet visar att Diamond-Square är snabbare än vad Perlin noise är men Perlin noise har bättre framkomlighet. / This project deals with which algorithm is best for procedural terrain generation. Is Diamond Square better or worse than Perlin noise when they are compared on execution time and exploration. The algorithms are implemented in Unity, where they are tested to get the execution time and Flood Fill is used to determine exploration. The algorithms were run 1000 times each on three different map sizes to obtain an average. The results show that Diamond Square is faster than Perlin noise is but Perlin noise has better exploration.

The use of procedural content generation is becoming more and more popular in the video game industry. With games such as Minecraft or No Man’s Sky we have seen the potential of PCG in video game creation but also its challenges. In fact, while the processing power and memory capabilities of our machines are unceasingly growing, human capability for content creation doesn’t seem to be able to follow the same pace. Game developers had then to come up with several techniques and methods that will help them generate lots of content for their games while still keeping a certain level of control on the output. Urbis Terram is a procedural city generation tool for Unity3D that allows the creation of complete cities to be used in video games or simulations made with this engine. The goal of this thesis is to tackle the technical challenge of designing and implementing a PCG tool that will help game developers to quickly generate terrains, road networks and allotment spaces for buildings and other urban areas. The goal is to have a unique complete city generation tool that can enable quick game design iterations and can be used to create complex virtual worlds.

Context. Procedural content generation is to algorithmically generate content. This has been used in games and is an important tool to create games with large amounts of content using fewer resources. This may allow small developers to create big worlds, which makes the investigation into this area interesting. Objectives. The Procedural generation of cities using Perlin noise is explored. The goal is to nd out if a procedurally generated city using Perlin noise is viable to use in games. Method. An implementation generating cities using Perlin noise has been created and a user study along with data collection tests the cities' viability in games. Result. The implementation succeeds with all the technical requirements such as performance and determinism. The user study shows that the cities created are perceived as viable in games. Conclusion. The cities generated with the implementation seems to be viable in games. The results show that the generated content are percieved as more viable than random generated cities. Furthermore the generation speed is fast enough to be used in an online setting.

Målet med projektet är att jämföra algoritmerna Perlin noise och Diamond-square för procedurell terränggererering inom exekveringstid och framkomlighet. Projektet implementerades i Unity i form utav ett editor-verktyg som både genererar terräng och utför diverse tester. Framkomlighetstestet för terrängen är en modifierad version av en Flood fill algoritm och mätningen av exekveringstid utförs med en timer. För att undvika att vara partisk mot någon av algoritmerna har det implementerats flera typer av terränger med varierande egenskaper. Mätningarna som utförs på varje terräng för respektive algoritm testas ett stort antal gång för olika givna storlekar och med varierande frön. Efteråt utförs en analys som visar att Diamond-square definitivtär den snabbaste av de två algoritmerna och att Diamond-square ger högre framkomlighet för större banor, medan Perlin noise visar en mer konsekvent framkomlighet. Framtida relaterade projekt bör inkludera flera modernare algoritmer för att se hur de förhåller sig till Perlin noise och Diamond-square.