Math for Game Programmers: Juicing Your Cameras With Math

GDC Festival of Gaming
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2018–2025
YouTube
159K views · 8 years ago · talk · intermediate · evergreen

A GDC talk in the Math for Game Programmers series on using math to improve game cameras. Commenters single out its use of noise for camera motion and Voronoi diagrams to run split-screen cameras for several players.

HN people cite it as an excellent talk on the quality of noise and their favorite real-world use of Voronoi diagrams.

“this GDC presentation from 2016 is probably my favorite real-world application of Voronoi Diagrams”
Game design
#gdc#gamecamera#gamefeel#voronoidiagrams#perlinnoise#splitscreen

3 comments from Hacker News

H
@HanClinto2025 · in “Linear algebra explains why some words are effectively untranslatable”
A Voronoi diagram is created when you color every point on an image according to which discrete point it is closest to. So in this case, I see the diagrams as representing the boundaries drawn when projecting / quantizing complex ideas into a set of central points that are insufficient for catching all of the nuance of the original. How well can you adapt a nuanced idea to a different space? If Language A has an idea that exists at one point in space, which is the closest word in Language B that might be used to represent it? A Voronoi diagram is one possible way of illustrating it. Tangent on your tangent: this GDC presentation from 2016 is probably my favorite real-world application of Voronoi Diagrams, and uses them for N-player split-screen camera control: ▶ this video I have a lingering dream in the back of my mind to make a single-couch Liero-style casual game for N-players with good dynamic camera support using this technique.
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m
@motius2021 · in “Perlin vs. Simplex”
See this excellent video[0] on the quality of Perlin in Godot versus other kind of noise which looks random at first sight, but isn't when you change the time scale. Especially around 10-15 min. Godot has an "OpenSimplex" implementation to avoid patent issues, yet still improve on Perlin noise. [0]: GDC, "Math for Game Programmers: Juicing Your Cameras With Math" ▶ this video
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z
@zaksoup2018 · in “Math For Game Programmers: Juicing Your Cameras with Math”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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