====== The Perlin algorithm ======

===== How does perlin work? =====

If you want to learn how perlin synthesis works, please have a look at:

  * //[[wp>Perlin_noise|Wikipedia]]//, or;
  * Paul Bourke's [[http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/texture/perlin/|perlin tutorial]] (with Perlin's original source-code), or;
  * Hugo Elias' longer [[http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/models/m_perlin.htm|perlin tutorial]], which also includes example source code.

The man himself, Ken Perlin, has some excellent demos of perlin noise on [[http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/|his website]], including [[http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/experiments/demox/Planet.html|procedural terrain generation]]. Another example of terrain synthesis using perlin noise is Stephen Schmitt's marvellous [[http://www.world-machine.com/|World-Machine]].

===== Perlin in L3DT =====

The perlin algorithm in L3DT is a bog-standard implementation, and doesn't yet feature any of the nice ridged multi-perlin options you might find elsewhere. It is, however, capable of making maps as large as 128k × 128k pixels using the [[l3dt:algorithms:mosaics|mosaic map architecture]].