Hey. I''ve found myself needing to get a number between 2 bounds, IE 0 and 1, or 0 and 255. I know I can do a integer result with rand() and the modulus operator, but I`d really like a floating point solution. What`s worked for you guys ? From what I`ve seen of perlin noise its really slow. Other random formulae I really don`t know of. :-/ I can`t recall ever running across this problem in my various studies. Oh yeah- ideally its prety fast- its going to be for a particle emitter. Thanks, ~V''lion Bugle4d

#define RANDOM_FLOAT (rand()/RAND_MAX)
#define RandomNumber(a) (RANDOM_FLOAT*a)
#define RandomRange(a,b) (RandomNumber(b-a)+a)


RANDOM_FLOAT will give you a random number between 0 and 1, RandomNumber will give you a random floating point between 0 and a, and RandomRange will give you a random number between a and b.

Hope this helps!

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"There are only three types of people in this world: those who can count, and those who can't."

Just3D
Justin Nordin
J Squared Productions
www.jsquaredproductions.com

[edited by - Just3D on July 27, 2002 6:19:49 PM]

[edited by - Just3D on July 27, 2002 6:20:41 PM]

[edited by - Just3D on July 27, 2002 6:22:08 PM]

Just3d,

Those macros should probably read as follows:

#define RANDOM_FLOAT ((float)rand()/(float)RAND_MAX)
#define RandomNumber(a) (RANDOM_FLOAT*a)

Tsk..tsk.. so many edits...next time I''ll try and proof-read my message.

(doh!)

Yeah, forgot the casts. (Can''t be too careful).

What if you want to find a random # that is not completely random? for instance, what if you want the lower #s to occur more often. In essence, how can you generate a random #, n, where the frequency of the a number = 1 / number ^ 2 or somethign similar... is there a way to do this using a funcion for the frequency f(n)?

thanx for the help!

tazzel3d ~ dwiel

Well, if you square the random number before dividing by RAND_MAX², there should be more small numbers than large numbers.

Cédric

My random number generator returns a truly random number between two bounds. Generating biased random numbers would be a bit harder.

quote:

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Original post by cedricl
Well, if you square the random number before dividing by RAND_MAX², there should be more small numbers than large numbers.

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Warning - RAND_MAX squared might roll-over on some implementations. Might want to do the division first and square the result.



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why didn't I think of it to start with!?!?!?! all you hav to do to generate biased random numbers is create a function to pass the random number through... example:




of course this could all be put into one function, but for ease of explantaion, I wrote it as two. In this way, you can bias the number any way you wish as long as the number always stays between the range of 0 and 1.

if anyone else can come up with a way to bias the number or can pick my method apart, please do so!

Tazzel3d ~ dwiel

[edited by - tazzel3d on July 27, 2002 10:27:30 PM]