Apr
3
2012

Diamond Square Algorithm

An article by mgear

Converted Diamond Square Algorithm / random midpoint displacement fractal from Processing (original by “Justin Seyster”) to Unity C#.
*See also related forum topic.

Release#1:
– Color32 array with SetPixels32() (instead of plotting each pixel at a time..)
– Replaced “/2” with “*0.5f” (supposed to be bit better??)

Ideas:
– Try to make some terrain height maps? Or just directly displace vertices from the function..?
– Does it work in 3D?
– Use it for drawing clouds? Minecraft map?
– What if you adjust parameters each frame, how it looks animated?
– Use as a shader? Someone has made one here, who would convert to unity..?
– Mix colors with previous layer..?
– LookUpTables?

Webplayer:
nothing to see..it just generates a texture as in screenshot..

Download source:
DiamondSquareAlgorithm1.unityPackage

Or donatebuy source:
0.5 eur [digishop id=”14″] (download link comes to your email)
Includes: Example scene, c# source

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Image#2: texture size: 2048×2048, filtermode.Point,

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Image#3: deep profiler report (should try to put the colors in array..instead of using single setpixels..also could try using ints? and replace divisions with multipliers?)

(click image to view)

Small update: using array & setpixels, bit faster..

(click image to view)

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Image#4: greyscale..heightmaps..

(click image to view)

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Image#5 (Terrain with nicer colors.. the grid’ding is quite visible in larger terrains..)

Tags: algorithm, diamond square, fractal, generator, plasma, random midpoint displacement fractal, terrain, texture

About the Author:

.fi

12 Comments + Add Comment

Ted 04/04/2012 at 00:27

This is amazing!Can’t wait for the source

Reply
George 04/04/2012 at 18:35

Hello!How do i download it?I have installed the toolbar and have java enabled and still says that UnityCoder.com Toolbar must be installed & Javascript enabled! (and these links are personal, use the toolbar to access downloads) yada yada

Reply
- mgear 04/04/2012 at 18:50
  
  ^ link fixed!
  
  Reply
Andrew 05/04/2013 at 22:51

I also was not able to download – after installing shitty toolbar

Reply
- mgear 05/04/2013 at 23:19
  
  Chrome has problems with the downloads..
  (It might work better now, link doesnt open in a new window anymore)
  
  Reply
  - Andrew 05/04/2013 at 23:27
    
    Sorry for calling your toolbar shitty. You are an awesome programmer. I was just frustrated.
    
    Reply
    - mgear 06/04/2013 at 16:58
      
      no problems, havent yet found other solutions for offering free downloads.. (actually google ads are better than the toolbar already)
      
      Reply
mgear 16/06/2014 at 10:38

generic lattice noise algorithm:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/785084/A-generic-lattice-noise-algorithm-an-evolution-of

Reply
CodeE 05/01/2015 at 00:37

I suppose this is not a “Dianmond-Squere” Algorithm because it looks so linear and “griddy”.
It looks like a two dimensional “Midpoint-Displacement”. You need to do two steps first create all squares then diamonds

Reply
David 12/01/2015 at 19:30

Wonderful! You just saved me a few hours of work, thanks a lot!

Reply
Rob 11/09/2016 at 16:24

How did you generate the greyscale height map?

Reply
- mgear 11/09/2016 at 22:52
  
  I think the colors were just set to 0-1 for each (R, G, B), so it becomes grayscale,
  in the terrain colors image, there is some added if’s to set different colors based on the value (like if height is 0.5, then use grass color..)
  
  Reply