Interactive demo

Fractal Noise

Fractal noise adds up several layers (octaves) of the same noise with rising frequency and falling amplitude. The result has detail at every scale, like real coastlines, clouds and mountains.

Your browser does not support the HTML5 canvas tag.
  1. Octave 1×1 · 52%
  2. Octave 2×2 · 26%
  3. Octave 3×4 · 13%
  4. Octave 4×8 · 6%
  5. Octave 5×16 · 3%

Below the result, every octave is shown on its own. The bar is its share of the result.

Noise

Display

1. Octaves

Every octave is the same noise at a higher frequency. The first octave sets the large shapes, the later octaves only add finer and finer detail.

2. Lacunarity and gain

Lacunarity multiplies the frequency from one octave to the next, gain multiplies the amplitude. With the classic values 2 and 0.5, every octave has twice the detail and half the weight.

3. Variants

Turbulence folds the noise with the absolute value, which creates billowy shapes like clouds or smoke. Ridged noise turns these folds upside down into sharp crests, ideal for mountain ranges.