How random can you be

That can be helpful in math, computer science and cryptography, among other disciplines. Random numbers are also crucial to simulating very complex systems. When dealing with the climate or the economy, for example, so many factors interact in so many ways that the equations involve millions of variables.

Modeling this complexity with random numbers simplifies the calculations, and still results in accurate simulations. They can follow subtle patterns that can be observed over long periods of time, or over many instances of generating random numbers.

But the results would not really be random, because there are correlations and patterns in these timings, especially when looking at a large number of them. How can we obtain high-quality randomness, and what does this even mean? To be most effective, we want numbers that are very close to random. Suppose a pollster wants to pick a random congressional district. As there are districts, each district should have one chance in of being picked. No district should be significantly more or less likely to be chosen.

Low-quality randomness is an even bigger concern for computer security. It turns out to be very hard for computers to generate truly random numbers, because computers are just machines that follow fixed instructions. One approach has been to use a physical phenomenon a computer can monitor, such as radioactive decay of a material or atmospheric noise. These are intrinsically unpredictable and therefore hard for a potential attacker to guess.

However, these methods are typically too slow to supply enough random numbers for all the needs computers and people have. However, these produce random numbers that do follow some patterns, and at best contain only some amount of uncertainty.

A game to test your ability to pick random numbers. Become a member. Support an independent site. Make great charts. What you get. Visualization Tools and Resources, October Roundup. The game does not spin the RNG unnecessarily, so all uses for random numbers come from game entities that request them one of which can be the player if he performs certain moves. Pokemon games put their RNGs through more strenuous use.

When a Pokemon is generated, the resulting stats could hang around for a long time. Some of these stats are secret, hidden to the player, but have long-lasting effects. Because RNG is such an important part of the Pokemon series, the more recent games use particularly strong algorithms for their pseudo-randomness, like the Mersenne Twister.

The other games of its generation, Ruby and Sapphire , only do this if their clock batteries die. Knowing which frame will generate a shiny Pokemon does not guarantee that the player will be able to get it generated, timing issues are precise and another consumer of randomness might eat that value, but having a target to work towards can greatly cut down on the work needed to get it.

And since resetting the game resets the RNG seed to zero, instead of an indeterminate value, a player can try again and again, and, depending on the specifics, may have a much better chance at catching the elusive shiny Pokemon than the 1-in-8, odds most players have to suffer through. This has been studied enough by speedrunners to turn into a reliable exploit. Sections Close Back. Blogs Close Back.

Write for Game Developer. Blog Now. Connect Close Back. Register for a. Get daily Game Developer top stories every morning straight into your inbox. About Us.

Advertise With Us. Report An Issue. Subscribe Login. A minimum of 3 characters are required to be typed in the search bar in order to perform a search. We are currently working to fix issues with cut-off articles and incorrect URLs.

Click here to report an issue. Gamasutra is now Game Developer! Click here to learn more about the change, what's new on the website, and what's next! News How classic games make smart use of random number generation Curious about the best way to put a bit of randomness in your game? Get daily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inbox. Latest Jobs. Infinity Ward Woodland Hills, California.