Generate voxel terrain with Perlin Noise

Question

For my chunk generator for my game, it currently uses a triple nested loop, which seems very inefficient. It also seems like I could cut down a lot of code in the function somehow. Does anyone have any ideas?

void Chunk::Generate() {
    const int octaves = 6;
    const float heightMod = 4.0f;
    const float densityMod = 8.0f;
    const float horizontalFrequency = 1.0f / 256.0f;
    const float frontalFrequency = 1.0f / 256.0f;
    const float heightMapSize = 1.0f / 512.0f;
    for (int z = m_chunkZ; z < m_chunkZ + m_chunkDepth; z++) {
        for (int x = m_chunkX; x < m_chunkX + m_chunkWidth; x++) {
            // the last type generated
            VoxelType lastType = VoxelType::SAND;
            // the height used for this part of the chunk
            int height = static_cast<int>(noise_fractal_brownian_motion(m_noise, octaves, x * horizontalFrequency, heightMapSize, z * frontalFrequency) * (m_chunkHeight * heightMod));
            int minY = m_chunkY;
            int maxY = m_chunkY + height;
            for (int y = minY; y < maxY; y++) {
                const float colorMinCap = -0.45f;
                const float colorMaxCap = 0.45f;
                const float densityXFrequency = 1.0f / 64.0f;
                const float densityZFrequency = 1.0f / 256.0f;
                const float verticalFrequency = 1.0f / (static_cast<float>(abs(height)) * heightMod);
                float density = noise_fractal_brownian_motion(m_noise, octaves, x * densityXFrequency, abs(y) * verticalFrequency, z * densityZFrequency) * (abs(height) * densityMod);
                // todo: new noise map for color
                float colorR = noise_fractal_brownian_motion(m_noise, octaves, x * densityXFrequency, 0.0f, z * densityZFrequency - 0.15f);
                float colorG = noise_fractal_brownian_motion(m_noise, octaves, x * densityXFrequency - 0.08f, 0.0f, z * densityZFrequency);
                float colorB = noise_fractal_brownian_motion(m_noise, octaves, x * densityXFrequency - 0.32f, 0.0f, z * densityZFrequency - 0.64f);
                if (colorR >= colorMaxCap)
                    colorR = colorMaxCap;
                if (colorG >= colorMaxCap)
                    colorG = colorMaxCap;
                if (colorB >= colorMaxCap)
                    colorB = colorMaxCap;
                if (colorR <= colorMinCap)
                    colorR = colorMinCap;
                if (colorG <= colorMinCap)
                    colorG = colorMinCap;
                if (colorB <= colorMinCap)
                    colorB = colorMinCap;
                if (density >= 0.0f) {
                    VoxelType type = ((y == maxY - 1 && lastType == VoxelType::DIRT) ? VoxelType::GRASS : _GetTypeFromY(y));
                    // check if we should replace a dirt type with grass
                    if (y == maxY - 1 && type == VoxelType::DIRT) type = VoxelType::GRASS;
                    if (type == VoxelType::WATER) {
                        m_transparentRenderer.AddVoxel(Position(x, y, z), Voxel(VoxelType::WATER, 0));
                    }
                    else {
                        if (y <= m_seaLevel)
                            m_underwaterRenderer.AddVoxel(Position(x, y, z), Voxel(type, colorR, colorG, colorB));
                        else
                            m_opaqueRenderer.AddVoxel(Position(x, y, z), Voxel(type, colorR, colorG, colorB));
                    }
                    lastType = _GetTypeFromY(y);
                }
            }
            // no matter what, add one water voxel at sea level
            m_transparentRenderer.AddVoxel(Position(x, m_seaLevel, z), Voxel(VoxelType::WATER, 0));
            // no matter what, add one sand voxel at 0 (bottom of the water)
            m_underwaterRenderer.AddVoxel(Position(x, 0, z), Voxel(VoxelType::SAND, 0));
            lastType = VoxelType::SAND;
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

For your:

            if (colorR >= colorMaxCap)
                colorR = colorMaxCap;
            if (colorG >= colorMaxCap)
                colorG = colorMaxCap;
            if (colorB >= colorMaxCap)
                colorB = colorMaxCap;
            if (colorR <= colorMinCap)
                colorR = colorMinCap;
            if (colorG <= colorMinCap)
                colorG = colorMinCap;
            if (colorB <= colorMinCap)
                colorB = colorMinCap;

This can be reduced using a suggestion from here:

inline float clip(float n, float lower, float upper) {
  return std::max(lower, std::min(n, upper));
}

And then do:

clip(colorR, colorMinCap, colorMaxCap);
clip(colorG, colorMinCap, colorMaxCap);
clip(colorB, colorMinCap, colorMaxCap);

I don't believe you will lose any performance from that.

Also, try adding OpenMP to your project and right before the first for loop add:

#pragma omp parallel for

This should parallelize the first loop (don't nest pragmas), and make your code run faster. Although, I am assuming (after a not too thorough review) that the any particular iteration does not depend on a previous iteration. Although it should, as Perlin Noise is "embarrassingly parallel".