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Procedural generation is a widely used term in the production of media, indicating the possibility to create content on the fly, as opposed to creating it before distribution. This is often related to computer graphics applications and video game level design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_generation

How about creating levels on the fly, or from the editor on the fly, perhaps with an inteface, like level size, height levels, etc etc, fpsc is about the only fps engine I can think would be capable of this as it uses segments so one could in theory have a program build a level on the fly, a bit like one has random maze generator programs for pen and paper RPG, infact if you do a search of P+P RPG tools they have loads of random generators for all kinds of stuff, cities, caves, mazes, characters, etc, perhaps the same can be done here, indie game, dwarf fortress uses Procedural generation, lots of old games used to use it due to low memory, for a modern game using procedural generation see Introversion's Subversion game using a very advanced version, youtube videos here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zluTvROHXA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo5zO4QULcE&feature=related
thats done by the editor not an artist, it builds a city by itself, also does the insides of the buildings as well,
see here, go to this part of the blog - It's all in your head, Part 8 and 9
http://www.introversion.co.uk/blog/index.php
Ive seen this done with the pen and papper RPG game generator programs lots of times before, interesting to see it in a 3d.

Now some of you clever moders could perhaps create such a thing, not as complex as Introversion's Subversion, Im just talking about laying some segments down, TGC could of done that for fpsc DX10, then you could create random levels fill em up and blast away, anyway its an idea I am putting forth, perhaps some one here likes it too and could make such a fine thing.

My thought on this is that it would have to have a lot of coding done to FPS Creator, but if this really worked it would be a really useful feature.

...this is an outstanding idea.

You've perked my interest. Many applications that I wrote a long time ago in DBP, B3D, QB were many different renditions of maze generators.

I think FPSC could do with an addition like this, however, I'm not sure how the end user would harness it effectively, though, without altering the Editor. If anyone can come up with a great way to harness it like that, and after I get back to programming, I just might undertake this.


The one and only,
~PlystirE~

Version to work outside the editor and a version to work inside the editor. Well all would be set in the editor, what I mean is one can have set saved levels, and also one can set the game to follow set viarables and generate the game from within the game, as levels that have not been pre made and saved.

That way one can edit the random generator in the editor for tweaking, and also having a version that works in game, so we can have our levels Procedural generated on the fly, but, what would happen with the Procedural generated on the fly, is that we would set its settings before hand, because we would need some control on the parameters. this way we can vary what is spawned from level to level, or even create infinite games, like the early arcade games from the late 70s, early 80s, having games go on forever and following set rules, ie tougher enemies as the game progresses, or different power ups or items as the game progresses, so we can set per map, per game or per game level, ie level as in map one level one, then level two same map, ie you are looking at the editor, generate some content, go up a level, generate more content, building or randomly generating each floor of a building for example.


spawn entities.

set type, standing entities or entities that fix on walls
set entities to be spawned
set number or percentage variable of spawning
set associated entity to spawn, number or percentage variable of spawning, pick position, either set distance or a variable percentage chance, set within parameters set. also position or even pattern, weather random or geometric, or set patterns.

So what we can do with the above is have tables spawned with associated chairs, with associated items, ie objects placed on the tables, same goes for lights having associated light entities, or even having lights without the light entity and therefore being set as unlit lights, also with this we can randomly spawn trees or vegetation, with the patterned spawn type we can have man made objects spawn, ie generators or boxes, having the option to spawn wall objects gives the option to spawn pipes or tech greeble objects to walls.

Ill go into segments next.

Hmmmm, I was thinking more along the lines of... without being able to do this in the editor, how would one go about telling their game which levels they want randomly generated as well as which entities/segments/enemies/items/etc to use in that level.

Scripting came to mind, but really, it'd be very messy.

Also, the level would be pretty boring if the enemies stayed in one spot, which means random generation of waypoints as well.


The one and only,
~PlystirE~

This is a great idea, a FPSC Map generator would probable best describe this Idea, a program that generates random FPCS maps. This would be a great feature you could generate a few maps then tweak them add your media and play!

I think what he's after is a way to have the game generate new maps every time you play... kinda like Diablo did.


The one and only,
~PlystirE~

I mean both ways, yes you are both right. Both are good

Creating the game would all be done in the editor, what I mean is that we have two choices in making games, to make the game we have to input the settings on how the game will randomly make it, it has input variables so we have to set these, so that's the same for all games.

But what I meant by in game and out of game, is that we could make the game in the level editor, as in we set the game variables, press a button and it makes it right there and then in the editor, we save the level, and that's your game or one level of the game at least, do this for how ever many levels you want, save the maps one at a time.

But another method could be done, Ive just covered making premade levels, but what if the game is made on the fly, as in you load the game and the game itself builds its levels, this is who some old games from the past used to be made, some games could go on forever, the game may of had an infinite amount of levels, they just got generated on the fly, while you played the game, if this was done in fpsc, what would happen is that in the editor we would set up the variables for generation, and then apply it to use these within the actual game, so it makes the game as we play it, or I should say before each level loads.

The problem I can see with that, is that one would have to wait for compiles for lighting, that would take forever, the old games that did procedural game creation didn't have lighting, old arcade games like Berzerk are 2d games, but that can be solved by not having light entities in the settings and having the game to set to no lighting, default lighting set at 100% ambient.

what about this idea, random spawn items infront of the player.
Why?
Because you could have the player be in one place, then spawn items in front of the player and have them move past the player, this would make it look like the player is running over a landscape, see example for what I mean.

Samurai Soul Hunters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5VoJF2r7tY