1. Generating Terrains via Marching Cube Algorithm for Games
Kethan Tellis Adam Smith Chris Barakian Ravi Vaishnav

2. How can we create more interesting game terrains?

3. Game Terrains Methods
Height maps

4. Procedurally Generated
Game Terrains Methods
Height maps
Procedurally Generated

5. Procedurally Generated
Game Terrains Methods
Height maps
Procedurally Generated
Via Geometry Shaders

6. Procedurally Generated
Game Terrains Methods
Height maps
Procedurally Generated
Via Geometry Shaders
Scanning Models

7. Game Terrains Methods Drawbacks
Heightmaps
Lack of complexity in environment (No caves / tunnels)
Procedurally Generated
Can’t be saved and reused. Gameplay is inconsistent
Geometry Shaders
Difficulty in collision detection
High computational costs
Scanning Models
Difficult to create
Costly in time and resources

8. Marching Cubes Algorithm
Complex, Reusable, Cheap Terrains
Perlin Noise
Marching Cubes Algorithm

9. Perlin Noise Implementation
Octaves
Number of octaves increases the amount of the jitter around the lowest frequency
Alpha
Increases / Decreases amplitude of certain frequencies, bigger changes in terrains
Beta
Changes how much weight is granted to higher frequencies, more sharp deviations in terrain
Frequency
Amplifies the fluctuations in the amount of jitter

10. Perlin Noise Implementation
Octaves
Number of octaves increases the amount of the jitter around the lowest frequency
Alpha
Increases / Decreases amplitude of certain frequencies, bigger changes in terrains
Beta
Changes how much weight is granted to higher frequencies, more sharp deviations in terrain
Frequency
Amplifies the fluctuations in the amount of jitter

11. Perlin Noise Implementation
Octaves
Number of octaves increases the amount of the jitter around the lowest frequency
Alpha
Increases / Decreases amplitude of certain frequencies, bigger changes in terrains
Beta
Changes how much weight is granted to higher frequencies, more sharp deviations in terrain
Frequency
Amplifies the fluctuations in the amount of jitter

12. Marching Cubes Implementation
Algorithm / Look-Up Table
Actually algorithmically described all 256 cases
Face Normals / Winding Order
Correctly had face normals face away from bounded density areas
Vertex Normals
Achieved weight averaged normals for verticies by comparing to neighbors
OBJ Export
Allowed surface to be exported as OBJ file for loading into Maya and eventually games

13. Progression Images

14. Progression Images

15. Progression Images

16. Progression Images

17. Progression Images

18. Progression Images

19. Progression Images

20. Progression Images

21. Progression Images

22. Progression Images

23. Progression Images

24. Progression Images

25. Progression Images

26. Marching Cubes Implementation
Mesh Construction
Built lookup table of each case
Built final mesh by adding position
OpenGL Implementation
Used Vertex Arrays for speed increase
GLSL for custom shading

27. Q & A
Demo

28. Q & A
Questions?