Simplex Noise Generator In JavaScript

A deterministic simplex noise generator suitable for 2D, 3D, and 4D spaces.

Works in both browser and node.js.

See Also:

• Create Noise Background With JavaScript And Canvas

How to use it:

1. Install and import the simplex-noise.js library.

# NPM
$ npm i simplex-noise --save

// ES Module
import SimplexNoise from 'simplex-noise';
// commonjs
const {SimplexNoise} = require('simplex-noise');
// from CDN
import SimplexNoise from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/esm/simplex-noise.js';

2. Create a canvas element on which you want to generate the simplex noise effect.

<canvas id="example"></canvas>

3. This example shows how to generate a basic noise effect in 2D space.

var simplex = new SimplexNoise(),
canvas = document.getElementById('example'),
ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'),
imgdata = ctx.getImageData(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height),
data = imgdata.data,
t = 0;
window.setInterval(function () {
  for (var x = 0; x < 256; x++) {
    for (var y = 0; y < 256; y++) {
      var r = simplex.noise3D(x / 16, y / 16, t / 16) * 0.5 + 0.5;
      var g = simplex.noise3D(x / 8, y / 8, t / 16) * 0.5 + 0.5;
      data[(x + y * 256) * 4 + 0] = r * 255;
      data[(x + y * 256) * 4 + 1] = (r + g) * 200;
      data[(x + y * 256) * 4 + 2] = 0;
      data[(x + y * 256) * 4 + 3] = 255;
    }
  }
  t++;
  ctx.putImageData(imgdata, 0, 0);
}, 1000 / 60);

4. Generate the noise field in 2 dimensions. Returns a number in the interval [-1, 1]

noise2D(x: number, y: number);

5. Generate the noise field in 3 dimensions. Returns a number in the interval [-1, 1]

noise3D(x: number, y: number, z: number)

6. Generate the noise field in 4 dimensions. Returns a number in the interval [-1, 1]

noise4D(x: number, y: number, z: number, w: number)

7. Seed the noise functions.

const simplex = new SimplexNoise('seed'),
      value2d = simplex.noise2D(x, y),
      sameSeed = new SimplexNoise('seed'),
      differentSeed = new SimplexNoise('different seed');
sameSeed.noise2D(x, y) === value2d
differentSeed.noise2D(x, y) !== value2d