Thread by @StylizedStation

How Voronoi Noise Became a Game-Changer in Video Games. Another massive thread 🧵

In the early 20th century, Georgy Voronoy, a Russian mathematician, tackled a problem that had stumped mathematicians for centuries: how to divide up space based on the distance between points.

Voronoy's solution was a diagram that used the distance between points to create regions of influence, generating a series of polygonal cells that partitioned the space around each point.

This diagram, now known as the Voronoi diagram, has practical applications across many fields, including art, astronomy, physics and data analysis.

However, their usefulness extends beyond that. Voronoi diagrams are a powerful tool in video game creation.

And today, we’re going to learn precisely what makes this little diagram so powerful.

So, what exactly is Voronoi noise?

This pattern can be seen in a wide variety of natural phenomena, such as the cracking of mud, the arrangement of cells in tissues, the distribution of mineral veins in rocks, and the pattern of fur on some animals, like a giraffe for example.

The Voronoi pattern can be seen in nature because it is a natural consequence of specific physical and biological processes.

For example, the formation of mineral veins in rocks is influenced by the distribution of minerals and the flow of fluids, which can create regions of varying mineral concentrations.

Similarly, the arrangement of cells in tissues is influenced by the mechanical and chemical interactions between the cells, which can create regions of different cell densities.

The resulting pattern often appears in nature and is known as a Voronoi tessellation or a Voronoi pattern.

So, how does it work?
Voronoi Noise is created by randomly sprinkling "seed" points across a space. Then, each point in that space gets assigned to the closest seed point.

This process creates distinct regions or cells around each seed point, with the boundaries equidistant from two or more seed points. The result is a unique pattern that resembles a network of irregular, organic shapes, which we call Voronoi Noise.

Regarding game design, The organic, non-repeating patterns produced by Voronoi Noise make it a versatile tool for creating realistic textures, terrains, and procedural content.

This type of noise function has become particularly popular due to its ability to mimic natural phenomena and blend with other types of noise functions, such as Perlin and Simplex noise, to create more complex patterns.

Voronoi noise is powerful in game design because it helps solve the problem of creating random and diverse content in a game world. Game designers use Voronoi noise to generate unique elements without creating each element by hand.

Part 2: Voronoi Noise in Terrain Generation
Terrain generation is one of the most common applications of Voronoi Noise in video games. Using Voronoi Noise, game developers can create realistic landscapes with varying elevations, valleys, and mountain ranges.

For example, imagine you are a small indie studio trying to create a diverse landscape for your upcoming game.

Your team is too small to create each element by hand, so you turn to Voronoi Noise. By generating a Voronoi diagram, your team can create a range of unique terrain features such as jagged peaks, rolling hills, and meandering rivers.

Game developers can generate intricate biomes and ecosystems that feel organic and immersive by combining Voronoi Noise with other noise functions and blending techniques.

Developers can then use the Voronoi diagram to create different types of content for the game world, such as defining the shape and size of terrain features like mountains or valleys or generating textures for the terrain like rocky or sandy surfaces.

Some popular games that use Voronoi Noise for terrain generation include Minecraft and No Man's Sky, which generate vast and diverse terrains for players to explore procedurally.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim also utilizes Voronoi Noise to create realistic terrain and rock formations, which help create a rich and believable environment for players to explore.

One benefit of using Voronoi noise for creating textures and materials is the natural and organic appearance that it can produce. Patterns created by Voronoi noise mimic how raw materials form and interact in the real world, leading to textures that look and feel authentic.

The noise function's unique patterns can produce intricate, natural-looking textures for various surfaces, such as rocks, lava, bark, scales, and water.

Game artists can adjust the parameters of the Voronoi diagram to create different textures with varying degrees of detail and complexity.

One significant advantage of using Voronoi Noise for textures is that they are procedural. This means the textures are not pre-made images but are algorithmically generated based on rules and parameters.

Procedural textures are highly flexible and can be changed on the fly, allowing developers to tweak and adjust the textures to their liking without creating new assets from scratch.

A game developer can use Voronoi Noise to generate a rock texture for a game world. They can then manipulate the texture in various ways to create different variations of the same texture, such as adjusting the size of the rocks, the number of cracks, or the color of the texture.

Another example of how Voronoi Noise can be manipulated is using it to create a water texture.

Game developers can adjust the Voronoi Noise parameters to generate patterns that resemble waves or ripples on the water's surface. They can also use Voronoi Noise and other noise functions to create more intricate water textures, like adding foam or bubbles to the surface

BUT WAIT.

There’s still something we’re missing.
Until now, we’ve assumed Voronoi can only exist as a 2d texture and be applied to surfaces. But as some of you may already know, this isn’t exactly true - voronoi can be extended into 3d space, creating a 3d diagram.

And this is where things get interesting.
If we take this 3d voronoi pattern, and intersect it with any 3d mesh, we can slice our 3d model into smaller segments in an infinite amount of patterns, opening up a whole new world of possibilities.

Now all we have to do, is add a little physics magic to our mesh…..and it can explode into tiny fragments, meaning we can now blow up anything we want, all in real time.

So, what if we take the ability to fracture any mesh using voronoi, add some physics, and then add some particle vfx, maybe we’d get something like this: (Sound on)🔊

But building destruction is going to have to be another topic.

Thanks for reading!