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Frame from Superpositions, Sudoku, the Wave Function Collapse algorithm. Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Superpositions, Sudoku, the Wave Function Collapse algorithm.

Martin Donald
Explainers
YouTube
3 HN users recommended this explainer3 months2021–2022 score 3.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Commenters recommend it as the clearest way to understand WFC, especially in threads about Townscaper and tiled content generation.

Martin Donald explains the Wave Function Collapse algorithm using Sudoku-like constraint solving and shows how he implemented it with Blender and Godot. It links demos and reference articles.

“I found them hard to understand until I found this video by Martin Donald” (HN, 2022)

1 strong recommendations · 2 recommendations · 1 citations · Explainers · intro

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@V__ Jun 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread How Townscaper Works: A Story Four Games in the Making
I didn't know about wave collapse functions before stumbling about Townscaper. Still, I found them hard to understand until I found this video by Martin Donald: [this video] Now, I'm just looking for a use-case to implement them myself sometime.
Made wave function collapse understandable.
@t8y Dec 2021 Recommends
on HN thread Townscaper Running in the Browser
Read more
This uses the "wave function collapse" algorithm. Oskar Stalberg also made a great demo of how it works[0], but it might not make sense just from that. Martin Donald made a really nice youtube video on how it works[1]. The name "wave function collapse" can be off putting but it's pretty straightforward, and an algorithm that can come in handy for many uses both in game development and just general software development. I'm actually procrastinating on HN from working on a GPU parallelised version that can generate millions of positions every frame. In Townscaper you can actually see that the algorithm runs quite slow and lags behind the players input, there's just a bunch of animation to hide it. I'm hoping to eventually get a version that can run in log2(mapsize) time. [0] [link] [1] [this video]
Really nice explanation of how the algorithm works.
@orls May 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Show HN: Simple Wave Function Collapse
Not OP, but I happened to see a good video on this recently: [this video] In short, it’s an algorithm for procedural generation of tiled content, like 2d/3d game maps.
Good explanation of an algorithm for generating tiled content.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@ItsMonkk Jan 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Aaron Swartz: How to Save the World, Part 1
Read more
I was inspired by Nicky Case[0], but independently recently reached the same conclusion as you have here. In March of 2020 when the pandemic was first hitting the US, before there was an official lock-down, and before any company wide announcement, and without any communication, my entire team had come in on a Friday, and my entire team had stayed home on the Monday. In essence, there was enough information that occurred over the weekend for the wave function to collapse[1]. That's what we're after - if you can illuminate the future in such a way that any other option is no longer an option. I've got no game-dev experience, so the journey will be long, but I think we're on the right track. [0]: [link] [1]: [this video]
Cited for the wave function collapse concept.

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