Re: Perlin and simplex noise

On Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:49:24 +0200, David Sheets <kosmo.zb@gmail.com>  
wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 10:05 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>> On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 1:57 AM, Erik Dahlstrom <ed@opera.com> wrote:
...
>>> What do other people think? The computational cost of the noise  
>>> algorithm in
>>> SVG 1.1 is fairly high, and that does limit what you can use it for in
>>> practice. If we chose to go for a new noise algorithm I would also  
>>> like to
>>> be able to animate the noise continously (I think this means we'd need  
>>> the
>>> 3d version of the algorithm). That is, I'd like to simulate say fire or
>>> smoke, and link the z dimension in the noise algorithm to the time  
>>> dimension
>>> so that the animation is continous (without strange gaps and without it
>>> looking like the result is scrolled along either or both of the x and
>>> y-axis).
>>
>> I *strongly* suggest that we make this decision in concert with
>> relevant browser devs, so we can get something that's legitimately
>> implementable by them.  I definitely support a decent-quality, fast
>> noise algorithm, because I desperately want noise usable in CSS.  ^_^
>
> Why not through custom shaders?
> <https://github.com/ashima/webgl-noise>
> <https://github.com/ashima/webgl-noise/wiki>
>
> The above is compatible with WebGL (GLSL ES 1.0) and is purely
> functional (no uniforms, arrays, textures, external state, &c).
> Classic Perlin and simplex noise are provided in 2, 3, and 4
> dimensions under the MIT (expat) license.

By not adding a CSS shorthand and a corresponding filter primitive element  
we're raising the bar for usage (and requiring every author that wants to  
use noise generators to copy these shaders), but you're right that it's  
possible to implement this as custom shaders. It's just nicer if this is  
part of the required functionality, as is already the case with the  
classical perlin noise algorithm in SVG 1.1.


-- 
Erik Dahlstrom, Core Technology Developer, Opera Software
Co-Chair, W3C SVG Working Group
Personal blog: http://my.opera.com/macdev_ed

Received on Monday, 3 September 2012 08:03:53 UTC