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[numerobis]

There's the usual quip that the full set of 3d images any human will see in the span of our species is about 2^80, and thus we only really need about 80 bits to describe which one we're talking about.

[coelocanth]

The oldest example I can recall of fractal compression is Strike Commander.

I offer you Out of the Shadows from 1984.
It generated the game world from a seed (if you used the same world name, you would have an identical game world to your friend)
The interesting bit (as it had to run in 48k of RAM) is that it regenerated each room of the dungeon from the seed on the fly when you entered it so the world was (by the standards of the time) huge.

[Qmarx]

If you're interested in that sort of thing, may I offer .kkrieger, a first person shooter done in only 96 kilobytes?

http://www.theprodukkt.com/kkrieger

[Vicomt]

The oldest example I can recall of fractal compression is Strike Commander.

I offer you Out of the Shadows from 1984.
It generated the game world from a seed (if you used the same world name, you would have an identical game world to your friend)
The interesting bit (as it had to run in 48k of RAM) is that it regenerated each room of the dungeon from the seed on the fly when you entered it so the world was (by the standards of the time) huge.

And I think I'll trump you with Elite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(computer_game). Its the same year, but, like DF (and Eve-Online) its inital world state was derived from a single seed, and not even Strike Commander or out of the Shadows  (as good as they were for the time) can beat Elite.

<disclaimer>I'm a BBC Micro Fanboi</disclaimer>

Vic

[Lightning4]

I remember hearing something about the OS and possibly computer configuration also has an effect on world generation from a seed. Pretty sure about OS, but not so sure about computer config. Even just OS differences greatly increase the number of random worlds.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I distinctly seem to recall DF world seeds being OS and hardware independent. They would lose their point if they weren't.

[Jualin]

I'd like to take this moment to take nothing from this little thing and give nothing to it in return. Just to boil it down into a small, bit-size tidbit...

Seed generation is nothing new, but if you ever see some guy, person, or thing ranting on and on about a DF world that you specifically remember playing, even up to the point that you remember the individual towns, and maybe that one mayor you skewed on a pike, and whose corpse you later used to beat his daughter to death with... remember? Well run. Just run. Because it's the end of the world.

[Zeofar]

The number of worlds that can be generated in Dwarf Fortress are quite large. Isn't it interesting to think about the fact that you will probably be unable to ever comprehend such great numbers in any meaningful manner? Strange that you guys should bring this up, especially after I recently watched this, this, and this.

And stranger still is that you mentioned Noctis within a week of me playing it for the first time.

[PTTG??]

I'm not even trying those links. I shun your pathetic attempt a rickrolling. I thought this fourm had seen enough of that... in the dark days...

[Makrond]

Not rickrolls... 

[Rilder]

I'd like to take this moment to take nothing from this little thing and give nothing to it in return. Just to boil it down into a small, bit-size tidbit...

Seed generation is nothing new, but if you ever see some guy, person, or thing ranting on and on about a DF world that you specifically remember playing, even up to the point that you remember the individual towns, and maybe that one mayor you skewed on a pike, and whose corpse you later used to beat his daughter to death with... remember? Well run. Just run. Because it's the end of the world.

Don't worry, with fractal generation we can just generate a new earth!

[Vengeful Donut]

I suspect that in the case of a rejected world it uses your seed to pick a new seed. If that is the case, then the number of possible worlds is much smaller than people are guessing, although still pretty large. And if the parameters are the criteria for rejection rather than generation, that's going to down the world count for the new version, too. Although, generating history and geography separately is still a big increase.

[Qmarx]

Well run. Just run. Because it's the end of the world.

No way.  Tiime travel is much more plausible.  Say hello to your future self.

[sneakey pete]

Considering that we can now edit parameters with a brush thingo, to make certain island etc, can't we just settle that there pretty much isn't a limit at all anymore? Or, at least, that its to large for our current computing to ever hope to calculate.

[Doppel]

Hmm, nice calculations, but a bit misleading. I think there should be a division between what is relatively the same, ie, two worlds that are practically the same excluding some minor (probably never to come across, except when specifically looking for them) differences. The permutations are mindbogling but do not create for a trillion entirely different worlds, just a trillion permutations. (a billion relatively different worlds is already high enough)

Any small change to the initial parameters would slightly change the way the world is generated- and the rejection parameters. Since these slight changes build up so rapidly, each world with even a fraction-point less annual temperate, for instance, would be totally different compared to the original.

Oh, and I forgot- there are two seeds now, and if you count the political situation of the world, we need to take Sean's finished multi-trillard number and square it.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not arguing the calculations done, i love them. But 100 trilliard different worlds is the same as one world times 100 trilliard with one slight difference each. Also consider that between one and a second wich is a fraction-point less annual temperate is another, idk, a hundred thousend worlds wich only vary to one of the two for 0.0001%, maybe. (something you will never notice, unless specifically looking for it)
Its ofcourse entirely possibly that a 0,0001% change to a certain world has a massive all changing effect on it. (Depending on whatever parameter has been changed)
Just trying to relativate mindbogling numbers.