Infinite Worlds with Perlin Noise at Başkent

The IEEE Başkent University Student Branch and the IEEE Computer Society invited us back a year after our first training there. On a Friday afternoon in room F-203, our founder Can Karabulut, a computer engineer, spoke on artificial intelligence in game design and showed how Perlin noise builds infinite worlds. The students who attended received a training certificate.

AI in Games

The session opened with an overview of the AI methods used in games. Finite state machines, behaviour trees, goal oriented action planning, steering behaviours, A* pathfinding, utility systems and hierarchical task networks were on the slide, followed by procedural generation, where algorithms build a world instead of a person designing every part by hand.

Infinite Worlds from Noise

Perlin noise is a smooth kind of randomness. Two points that are close on the map get values that are close too, so the result looks like hills, clouds or coastlines rather than static. A game can read this noise at any coordinate, which means the world never has to end. Terrain, caves and resources can all come out of the same function, and the same seed always gives the same world.

Thank You

We thank the IEEE Başkent University Student Branch and the IEEE Computer Society for hosting us a second time, and every student who joined on a Friday afternoon. The programme is on its page.