Procedurally Generating an Artificial Galaxy

Sammanfattning: The idea of procedurally generating artificial worlds has been around for a long time. It is used both for CGI effects in movies and, more prominently, for video games. It is done by big companies and small teams; professionals as well as beginners and hobbyists. It is an instrumental tool that enables even the smallest of development teams to create large worlds. While there is a lot of inspiration to draw from, the undertaking may be daunting for the beginner. The goal of this paper is to give an introduction to some of the concepts by taking us through the steps to procedurally generate a virtual galaxy full of stars and planets. Something simple that can be taken much further. We analyse statistical data and observations of space to create about 30 equations that superficially mimics a spiral galaxy with 100 billion solar systems, all with the help of some basic probability theory.