Better Mountain Generators That Aren't Perlin Noise or Erosion

[@KimekaKuroyukiCH2nd]

White dog talking to 3 shapes about mountain generation is something I never knew I needed to watch until now

[@quesecchu7026]

why is the dog talking?

[@ambi_cc8464]

@@quesecchu7026what the dog doin?

[@too_online.3441]

keyword is needed

[@lugui]

"I researched not 3, but 2 techniques..."

[@pvic6959]

idk how i found this channel but its so entertaining and funny and informative

[@tcharlesleonardo1681]

when? where?

[@ChuckSploder]

@@tcharlesleonardo1681 2:39

[@imstillwater8039]

I got to that and it became reason I subbed lol

[@kalpamonx]

@@tcharlesleonardo1681 2:39

[@Test-iv4pm]

A whole not 3 techniques. Impeccable.

[@Fun_GPT]

I was like: Did I just hear that right?

[@Redditard]

Would u have clicked if they were whole lot 2?

[@kenshin1238]

what's this mean?face-turquoise-covering-eyes

[@tigranrostomyan9231]

Didn’t get what that mean..

[@x3melodycat]

@@tigranrostomyan9231 @kenshin1238 at the start he said "i researched not 3 but 2 techniques" which sounds odd

[@qwfp]

I love when I'm just about to reach a summit after climbing for days, and a talking dog pops out of snow, teleports me and my fellow platonic solids to a shapeless void and explains mountain generation algorithms to us!

[@pvic6959]

that was SO FUNNY. i loved it

[@dialog_box]

i misread this as "and a talking dog poops out of nowhere"

[@vahgarimo9864]

@@dialog_boxI read it as a talking poop dogs out of nowhere

[@matt92hun]

After the 17th time you kinda expect it annoyedly, but get a little disappointed when it doesn't happen.

[@Monkeymario.]

YEAH

[@ThatRobHuman]

"Not three, but two" got me.

[@yodaman8015]

So tired of these copy paste comments

[@ThatRobHuman]

@@yodaman8015 good thing I actually typed it out since I was being genuine....

[@yodaman8015]

@@ThatRobHuman your comment is stale and used over and over is what I am saying.

[@ThatRobHuman]

@@yodaman8015 Feel better for having given your insightful $0.02? why are you under the impression that I care what your opinion is. Your neg should've stayed in the drafts, mate. Go bother someone else.

[@ThatRobHuman]

@@yodaman8015 thanks for sharing your opinion - the neg could've stayed in your drafts.

[@mncc8327]

I love how you use a bulky robot for the brutal force method and a slim robot for the nerd method

[@Arnaz87]

Not just that, his bulky robot moves discretely (in small hard steps) and the nerd robot moves continuously (fluid motion).

[@mncc8327]

@@Arnaz87Never noticed that. Wow!

[@Woodside235]

@@Arnaz87 Nice catch

[@ValeBridges]

​@pespsisipperAnd they were roommates! (Oh my god, they were roommates)

[@tessabakker662]

@pespsisipper ah, a connoisseur of the WALL-E x EVE dynamic!

[@SebastianLague]

I’ve never thought about using DLA for generating terrain, that’s a cool idea. Excited to experiment with it! Also, your visualizations and style are amazing, great work! :o

[@frederickmelvin8374]

hello random youtuber with 1.25m subs

[@clementbaron7323]

Greatness recognizes greatness.

[@kenshin1238]

hello random youtuber with 1.25m subs

[@JoshsHandle]

Thanks! It really means a lot to hear that from you, I'm a big fan of what you make.

[@pureay2700]

Can not wait for either of you two to make another video on the topic

[@r4_in_space]

Ah, yes. Who hasn't experienced the moment where, in the midst of conquering the powers of nature herself by scaling the highest of mountains, a wild sentient literate snow dog appears to you and takes you to an abstract world to explain how mountains can be accurately generated by computer software?

[@nomadshiba]

Minecraft uses a newer technique now, where they mix perlin noise with manually entered spline points, which gives them more control and more realistic and less repetitive terrain. Henrik Kniberg (minecraft dev), has a great video about it called "Minecraft terrain generation in a nutshell"

[@mnxs]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[@sechmascm]

You can also see a talk by the creators of No Man's Sky and see how many techniques they apply. Just, don't market your new game as an expansive universe of repetitiveness

[@AliasA1]

I've never been so quickly hooked on a video about noise algorithms

[@IrvanQadri]

Simply amazing how high quality KZbin edutainment have become. Cool plain explains

[@Splarkszter]

Agreed. That's why i keep a public list of the high-quality channels out there.

[@OrangeC7]

actually, these were mountain explanations, not plain explanations

[@aloysiuskurnia7643]

@@OrangeC7 not a plain explanation, but certainly an explanation on how to manipulate planes :^)

[@neatsketch]

@@SplarkszterMay I see your public list of high quality channels?

[@swaggus4304]

@@neatsketchi also need to know. Just commenting so i get notifications

[@SeanStClair-cr9jl]

I'm like 4 minutes in and I'm so engrossed in the information that I didn't even realize how much effort you put into these graphics. This is some top-notch shit, and it's refreshing to see something new added to this scene, right around when I feel like many people are finally familiar with the general trick of Minecraft-like terrain generation.

[@rysea9855]

This video rivals 3blue1brown in quality. Absolutely jampacked with information and visualization, while being explained perfectly. These sorts of videos are what give me the motivation to continue my study and hopefully one day be able to code stuff like this myself. I'll probably reference this video in the future, so I'll be back when that time comes. Absolutely amazing video, 10/10

[@chaosordeal294]

Yeah, it's like 3b1b but the math and science is accurate.

[@Foogi9000]

​@@chaosordeal294 Can you please elaborate further?

[@intelchip_x86]

chaosordeal294 I don't think you can say that and then not elaborate...

[@chemistcraft3007]

thats one hell of an opener, and i absolutely love it

[@iantl2419]

Thank you, now I have an excuse to rewrite my entire terrain generator for the 4th time! YESS! I'm so happy about this! Seriously though, this is great.

[@crazyrocketguy4687]

The production quality on this is insane, I can't believe I am watching this for free. Instantly subscribed

[@earth4180]

Hey I'm only a couple minutes into this video but it's already really incredible, the visualizations, everything -- so so good!! Fantastic job. Can't wait to see more!

[@earth4180]

ok finished the video -- wow!! You covered so so many topics (a lot of which I recognize from my graphics classes) in such a short time, and you did it incredibly well!! This is a seriously impressive bit of educational content, man. That's absolutely awesome!

[@Officialjadenwilliams]

Incredible video, Josh. Not only was the multi-noise algorithms clear and easy to understand, but extremely entertaining. The production quality is fantastic, and it makes the content even more engaging. Looking forward to more videos like this. Subbed. 👍

[@CosmicHase]

Computer science video pls?

[@ibiuld443]

inigo quilez is an absolute legend, everywhere i go i keep being led back to his work

[@ColinPaddock]

Is Indigo Q-Lez how it’s pronounced.

[@mr.boloso8296]

This is exorbitating quality from a KZbin video. I may guess how you create all the animations, but It still blows my mind, I'd really like to know more. You're one of the best Computer Graphics content creators on platform, keep up!

[@mimisaiko]

I like how they appreciate the view of summit more at the end of the video.

[@crescentx3]

1:35 That sound design… it’s so subtle, but with good headphones, it really adds to the quality of the video!

[@HalfBreadOrder]

why only 8 likes?

[@hughjanes4883]

Finally, someone who thinks perlin looks ugly. Also I unintentionally did the gradient method in one of my own programs and I have a good optimisation tip, I stored the gradient function (an in the video was x/x+m) as a gradient at the bottom of a texture I was using in the rendering process, its a small performance improvement and probabally slower unless your allready using an image in the process, but if your gradient functions are more complex and expensive it could be ever so slightly faster. One downside was that scince it was stored in an image it had to use a byte to store its value so you only had a gradient "resolution" of 256 this was barely noticeable though.

[@DreadKyller]

I mean 16-bit images are a thing, so you could use a different image format and remove the 256 resolution limit. It's also worth noting that instead of an image you could store a more generic 2D array of values (Or if on the GPU a buffer).

[@hughjanes4883]

@@DreadKyller good ideas, i was loading an 8 bit image anyways so thats why I only mentioned 256, i should have made it more general

[@Phraxas52]

Thinking Perlin looks ugly is exactly why I'm here as well. This is a great video.

[@Someoneyes-y7l]

I believe that perlin CAN look nice, if you completely rewrote the algorithm. However, it sucks right now. Looks like something a computer generated. Oh wait, a computer DID.

[@hughjanes4883]

@@Someoneyes-y7l you are right, its great for making procedural textures, but im some contexts like world gen it really shows how ugly it is.

[@cbhv4321]

Insanely high production value, very snappy, and good writing! Genuinely surprised your channel isnt bigger, i feel like im buying in before it skyrockets

[@BabulCNC]

You have to watch the Video 3 times, then KZbin allows you to see algorithm #3, using Simplex Noise, at the end - it's brilliant! Thank you ^^

[@cheydinal5401]

I love how the little animations in your video not only look nice and mix things up neatly, but also show the viewer that "Hey, this guy really know what he's talking about with all this creating good-looking visuals stuff"

[@akg_table]

2:36 "I've researched, not three, but two techniques!" lol

[@supermuffinbros4797]

Just the best video quality ever. This is where I would obsessively gush over every stylistic, audio and animation detail I noticed, but that would take a **lot** of text just to tell everyone (especially the creator) what they already know. (the derivitive robots are just the best though)

[@Brightgalrs]

The visuals on this video, and how tightly they sync with the narration, is astounding. Oh and the sound design, like those small chimes that play when one of the visuals has changed slightly. There's something special going on here.

[@newdiary6978]

The visuals , the explanation . WOW. just. WOW . Deserves a million subs ! The very first video about procedural generation that hooked me.

[@samk2407]

Im so hyped to see someone finally do better than the "it looks pretty good" of perlin noise

[@Someoneyes-y7l]

So true

[@ImplodingChicken]

Incredible video. I've never done any terrain generation or even computer graphics work before, but I was hooked all the way through. As others have said the humor was witty and the visual choices (like the two robots at 7:05) were great, but I wanted to highlight a moment at 6:32. When you introduce and start explaining finite difference approximation, the immediate question that comes to mind for me as a viewer is "why not just make the difference as small as possible?" And immediately you have an extremely intuitive and expressive animation showing both the reason that doesn't work (the pixelated zoom-in) and what would happen if you did it. That detail could have taken 5+ minutes to explain, or could have just been skipped and left as an unresolved anxiety, but in 3 seconds and half a sentence I've already had my question answered before I even asked it, built quality intuition about what's going on, and feel comfortable that I've grasped the concept. Seriously top-tier stuff here.

[@you_just]

this is literally my niche! i am a minecraft world generation nerd who has struggled with this exact problem, and i found the exact same gradient blog post you mentioned! great visualization!

[@hoteltoyota]

Your videos are by far some of the best on KZbin. You deserve so much more recognition than you get. I love your videos so much

[@GenesisRip]

Holy hell, this is a very good visualisation. Hope you keep this style of animation for future explainers, preferably shorter so it's not too onerous for you! Subbing for more : )

[@Saw-qv3bl]

I am an IB student from Spain and one of our asighnments to pass is to do a simplified version of a scientific paper on any subject, this video has helped me finnaly figure out what to write it on! Thank you so much!

[@georgezubat7225]

"Doggo of wisdom, what is your wisdom?" "Many people have dreamed of summiting the highest mountains, but there exists a strange sort of person that dreams of generating them instead."

[@meyegui]

My thoughts exactly 😂

[@skeptiklive]

So glad this was in my recommendations - It was very well explained for any level of prior knowledge so it filled in any gaps I had without boring me when it covered the parts I was already familiar with. Well done, looking forward to more!

[@maximuspegasus674]

Those animations are smoother than my brain

[@axyl_]

Amazing video! CGI was amazing, and the explanations were super clear! I’m working on a terrain generator for my game, and I’ve gotten some new ideas after watching, thanks for making this!

[@tonfilm]

Great video, thanks for making high quality educational content! I'm an experienced graphics programmer but didn't know about the gradient trick and DLA terrain... Until now!

[@artaani6010]

This is the first video from this channel that I came across and I just want to say that the quality of the animation and visualization of the algorithms is simply amazing.

[@hylkart]

As a terrain artist, the DLA approach really peaked (hah) my interest. Fractal Perlins just don't cut it, although indeed much more interesting than plain Perlins, they still have that "CGI" feel to them. I think the DLA approach offers a really solid base shape which you can tweak and augment further without a lot of hassle. Do you happen to know if such an algorithm is resource intensive and/or easy to code? An alternative method, which I think you could combine with Perlin and Voronoi cells, is to cut out rivers and valleys in a select area of your terrain. You'd have to somehow ensure the edges of your Voronoi cells all have the same elevation, so the water would flow to a common lowest point, but then you could (I think) do partial water simulation, cut valleys, and have great mountain shapes. If interested, I have a timelapse of such process on my channel! As for using plain old hydraulic erosion, imo that only works if you do a proper terrain simulation, so it doesn't appear feasible to me at the moment. You'd need different layers of rock to be simulated, as otherwise all terrain is eroded equally, and in the end it would still look artificial (just search "World Machine Mountain" and you will see the flowlines of the erosion and shapes all are similar).

[@charlesdegaulle5123]

Hi, I wrote an implementation of DLA based of this video; it's not too difficult, but, depending on how you do it, may need quite a bit of optimization to run smoothly. Hit me up if you've got any questions

[@-_James_-]

How about incorporating ground composition into the fractal perlin calculation? Steep soil erodes faster than steep rock, sandstone erodes faster than granite, etc...

[@CasualInventor]

I cannot fathom the amount of effort that went into this video's production.

[@ELEMENTLHERO]

I just stumbled onto this channel and the quality is amazing! Great job!

[@MrNicePotato]

I don't think people realize how much detail and quality you have put into this video's animations.

[@alexyz9430]

Amazing video! I only wish you'd change the thumbnail to make it look more alluring? Your dog character in particular has been a really distinct signature of your channel (not to mention they look very adorable 🥺) and I know a lot of people will be more intrigued to click if they see them in the thumbnail. (Maybe put on something like the scene where they're explaining to the three regular polyhedra?) I really hope you have more viewers and supporters in the near future! ❤

[@EpicGamerScout]

Can confirm, clicked this video a few hours later because now there's dog :D

[@dylanhetzel]

For anyone following along at home, I found that it was helpful to decrease the "influence" of the "crisp" images every time you add them. Otherwise, you just get a big lumpy mess. EDIT: also amazing video, I just got done implementing this in java and it is by far the coolest thing I've ever done. You are a legend.

[@noel.friedrich]

This video is absolutely fantastic! Hope this gets a lot more attention man!

[@oberonpanopticon]

Haha the funny internet dog is teaching me fascinating mountain generation techniques, what a wonderful time to be alive

[@delphicdescant]

That dog is downright terrifying, and I don't know why.

[@Monkeymario.]

18:02 your animations re too amooth

[@tcarr8004]

All of the visuals in this video are so well done. I found myself watching some scenes over and over just to track the dog's mouth with the narration. It's impeccable how well animated this is!

[@goshohgosh4568]

Im a bicycle mechanic why did i watch that whole video. You are an excellent orator. And you do make things look pretty.

[@leviathan5792]

The animation's on this are just mind-blowing. Awesome video!

[@JoshuaRose-hm3xq]

These graphics are on another level entirely. You're basically on another playing field in terms of quality. Incredible.

[@zunuf]

Incredible. There are some people who are just so good at explaining things, it makes you rethink the entire education system.

[@clqrified]

Wow. Incredibly high quality video and very full of information. I hope to see many more in the future! Keep it up!

[@jakob1536]

I love the sound effects. They really enhance the already stunning animations

[@sidwirb3629]

This is amazing! I have been looking for stuff like this for a solid few years at this point. Your dedication is much appreciated.

[@Courier1733]

Wow! I found a real treasure trove here! This channel deserves an extra diget to their subscriber count.

[@SpaceCatCat]

dayum these graphics are ON POINT! never seen such clean animations

[@MajatekYT]

I wasn't expecting a video this high effort about random noise, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Subscribed. ❤

[@rayrhehs]

this video feels so premium i should’ve paid for it before watching

[@jadosworld2782]

All of this and still 60k subs?! You are well underrated! Keep it up!

[@kehlery]

your explanation of gradients is one of the best i’ve ever seen. really impressive for a video where that isn’t even the main goal.

[@noidea5597]

That is INCREDIBLE high quality video! I have no idea how much time that took. I hope you'll find a method or tweak your style so that you don't need like 5 months pet video so that we can enjoy more of your content! Again, hat off for you! And please don't understand me wrong, your videos are literally perfect. I just don't want you to crunch.

[@charless9653]

Dude, you make the math so approachable with these amazing visualizations! This is seriously top notch educational content.

[@Marmotus]

This may be the most pleasantly animated video I've watched in a very long time. Incredibly good animation, sir.

[@shykj8892]

Intriguing subject and extravagant visualizations. Great work!

[@limec4t]

guys you don't understand how much work he put to make only this visuals, this guys deserve way more subs for this

[@ItsDragonsAllTheWayDown]

This is BEAUTIFULLY animated AND explained! I feel like I could actually follow you, which is rare for most complex math videos. You're an absolute gem.

[@mathewhenson4029]

This video is such great quality, you did such a great job! 🙂

[@Add_Infinitum]

6:33 That was such a good way of showing how the limited resolution could drastically affect the result. It's not a very complicated concept, but you just showed it so well

[@CatwaiiYT]

Can we take a minute to appreciate the visuals of the video? Amazing work! Also great content, excellent teaching

[@cabobsstopmotion4983]

Bro this is epic, it's like 3 Blue 1 Brown meets Pixar

[@JoaoVictorVila]

I am not a VFX artist, not a game developer, I won't use this at all in my life. But I watched it all and it was awesome.

[@charseraph9175]

The production value of these is insane. The water splash at 4:04 was unexpected and fun, and the two robots representing brute force and analytical approaches were great.

[@iestynne]

The attention to detail in the visualizations is incredible. I'm a graphics programmer myself and I was delighted by how much explanatory weight your animations hefted (clarifying and fleshing out the breezy voice over). You have a real talent for visual elucidation. This seems like an insane amount of work per minute of video. I hope it is worth it for you, because this really is top tier educational material.

[@flareflo362]

superb quality video. rare to see from such a small channel.

[@klobiforpresident2254]

One thing I find interesting about the gradient trick as presented is to invert the influene of the gradient; make it amplify the detail layers on steep surfaces and reduce them on flat sections. There's a look about the resultant landacapes which speaks to me.

[@cachecaver]

In college in the late 1990s I worked created an erosion based terrain simulator. This brought back all sorts of fond memories of playing with algorithms. Excellent presentation.

[@Froany]

I don't know if I've ever seen your videos before, but this information is EXACTLY what I was looking for, and I wasn't even expecting it!!! Thank you for such an amazing visualization. Keep up the great work!

[@kiwi1cat857]

Holy sh*t. Is it even possible to describe this as casual sounding? It flows so fu*king well. How in the what?

[@domorobotics6172]

One of the best and most curated video I’ve seen so far

[@Higgsinophysics]

You don't even need to be interested in the topic to watch this video, you can watch it for the insanely talented made visuals

[@ryft_music]

excellent explanations touching on complex subjects without getting too much in the weeds and excellent visually descriptive animations, subbed

[@boopsnoop5469]

I enjoy watching these types of programming videos, often times these new and fast animation techniques independently discovered are used and formally discovered years in computational physics. For example, the secret sauce technique referenced in the blog is analogous to GGA which is a technique used in density functional theory.

[@SaloCh]

Man the visual alegories with the vfx here are soo good!!

[@Monkeymario.]

14:29 thats sooooo smooth these animations are way too smooth

[@veganium98]

I can't imagine how much work went into this video... the visualizations and animations are stunning, incredible job!

[@aspidinton]

God damn this video is underrated. So well explained and simple to understand. Really wish yt algos recommended this video more

[@jamesclark2663]

This is such an astoundingly well-made video. Clean, concise, understandable with exactly the needed amount of detail to understand the subject without drowning. And the production of the video itself is incredible too! I'll have to watch a second time just because I really want to focus on exactly what has been done mechanically to both animate the video as well as how it works together with the VO to help convey the message better.

[@evanchilson9829]

The animation, sound, graphic, and overall presentation quality is literally insane. I'm so impressed and I don't even do anything related to this information, but man was I fully engaged. Instant sub lmao

[@ArekusaSan]

I did not expect to finally understand how upscaling works so well on a video about generating mountain terrain. Everything else you explained made sense too, you do an excellent job at it!

[@monkeysfromvenus]

the amount of work put into these visuals is incredible

[@iso_2013]

I'm shocked you don't have more subscribers. The production quality on this is immaculate

[@mukingdom]

Sitting in my room, trying to study for pediatric surgery exam and now I know more about Mountain Generators That Aren't Perlin Noise or Erosion than I'll need in my entire life.

[@Someoneyes-y7l]

Oh yes

[@Omenvreer]

I'm so impressed that you researched 2 techniques instead of 3. Incredible!

[@shiwakao]

normally i can't handle math intensive videos w/o dozing off but your presentation is equally visually appealing as it is well explained !