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.
- Octave 1
- Octave 2
- Octave 3
- Octave 4
- Octave 5
Below the result, every octave is shown on its own. The bar is its share of the result.
Noise
Display
Noise types compared
| Noise | Output | Built from | Work per sample | Smooth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value Noise | Scalar field | Random values on a grid | 4 grid points | Yes |
| Perlin Noise | Scalar field | Random gradients on a grid | 4 grid points | Yes |
| Simplex Noise | Scalar field | Gradients on a triangle grid | 3 corners | Yes |
| Worley Noise | Scalar field | Random feature points | 9 to 25 cells | No |
| Blue Noise | Point set | Random candidates around existing points | Up to 30 tries per point | – |
| Fractal Noise this page | Scalar field | Octaves of a base noise | 1 base noise per octave | Yes |
| Diamond-Square | Heightmap | Displaced midpoints of a grid | 4 neighbors per point | No |
| Colors of Noise | Signal or image | White noise filtered by frequency | 1 FFT for all samples | – |
| Domain Warping | Scalar field | Fractal noise at warped positions | Up to 5 fractal noises | Yes |
| Curl Noise | Vector field | Derivatives of a noise field | 4 noise samples | Yes |
| Noise Terrain Generator | Heightmap | Stacked noise layers | Layers × octaves | – |
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.