Efficient computational noise in GLSL

TL;DR

This paper introduces efficient, purely computational GLSL implementations of Perlin and simplex noise suitable for current GPUs, ensuring compatibility, high performance, and scalability without relying on textures or lookup tables.

Contribution

The authors provide portable, fast GLSL implementations of Perlin and simplex noise that operate without textures, compatible across various platforms, and scale well with GPU parallelism.

Findings

Performance comparable to existing GPU noise implementations

Compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0 and WebGL 1.0

Scales effectively with GPU parallelism

Abstract

We present GLSL implementations of Perlin noise and Perlin simplex noise that run fast enough for practical consideration on current generation GPU hardware. The key benefits are that the functions are purely computational, i.e. they use neither textures nor lookup tables, and that they are implemented in GLSL version 1.20, which means they are compatible with all current GLSL-capable platforms, including OpenGL ES 2.0 and WebGL 1.0. Their performance is on par with previously presented GPU implementations of noise, they are very convenient to use, and they scale well with increasing parallelism in present and upcoming GPU architectures.