How is procedural generation different from just regular generation?

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Slightly related to a recent post.

I understand procedural generation in video games is basically an instruction set to tell the computer to run through to get the same result every time so that it doesn’t load a whole level each time, it builds the level based on a set of parameters.

How is this different than just loading a built level? Isn’t that what a normal script of code is in any other game? Is an instruction set to tell the computer to load the level?

Is it just the difference between one being done by a programmer and one done by a level designer/artist? They both need assets already designed and made to work right?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Your grasp on precedural generation is flawed. Procedural generation means that while the game has some set parameters according to which it generates maps, it has no specific instructions. Parameters may include things like “structures have to be supported” “each structure has to be made of the same material” “X plants or trees need x,y,z conditions to grow” “a desert biome can’t be next to an arctic biome” “mountains need to stay within specific gradients” etc etc. Basically all those rules and limitations guide how the map can be made, but they’re not clear instructions like “a mountain here, a river there, a cave over there”

Procedural generation means that random maps are created but they have to adhere to specific parameters.

Regular generation means that the map has been designed before hand and it’s simply loaded into your game.

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