HN Hall of Fame
Weekly email

Show HN: Wave function collapse algorithm

github.com Software & code Software projects Computer games Class of 2021-07 Hall of Fame
Visit original Best HN thread
Report a link problem
Reports are reviewed before any public record is updated.

Screenshot of github.com captured 2026-07-20
Page preview · captured 2026-07-20

Resurfaced independently across 7 calendar years, with breakout response in 3 of them.

submissions
12
submitters
12
observed span
2016–2026
peak thread · 122 comments
1226 pts
latest 20+ return · 2026-04-30
83 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

Great work! The fact that it captures "long-range order" seemingly perfectly is something not many have been able to do before! And the "collapse" visualization is great fun to watch. But is your algorithm really qualitatively all that different from previous search methods (e.g. Efros and Leung), if you are still (uniform random?) sampling over the input distribution of patches? I notice also your input textures tend to have sharp boundaries (as is common in pixel art). It would be…

One cool property that I haven’t seen anyone else use is that you can use time itself as another tiling dimension. I did some experiments with creating looped animations a few years ago: https://twitter.com/MattRix/status/979020989181890560 https://twitter.com/MattRix/status/872648369625325568 https://twitter.com/MattRix/status/871054734018453505

MattRix·281-point thread·

If you like this, it was posted as a very popular Show HN in 2016, so you may be interested in the extensive comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12612246

kragen·153-point thread·

This was originally posted here a decade ago. I’m happy to see it’s still alive. I’ve been using some generated assets for a game with voxelized art. I intend to take a deeper look at this and see if it can simplify parts of my workflow. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12612246

tyleo·83-point thread·

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
3

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
1762

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
185

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2016-09-30Show HN: Wave function collapse algorithmFirst breakout · Best threadExUtumno1226122
2018-02-19Tilemap generation from single example using ideas from quantum mechanics_Microft1539
2019-06-12Wave function collapse inspires bitmap generation ML algoyoulweb40
2019-06-20WaveFunctionCollapsem0th8710
2019-06-23Wave Function Collapse Algorithmdoppp30
2019-08-24Program generates bitmaps that are locally similar to the input bitmapflancian30
2019-09-14WaveFunctionCollapse: Bitmap and tilemap generation from a single exampleanchpop10
2020-10-25Generation from a single example with the help of ideas from quantum mechanicscsm-yujinkim10
2021-07-16WaveFunctionCollapse: Generates bitmaps that are locally similar to the inputHall inductionlnyan28139
2023-09-01The Wavefunction Collapse Algorithmindigoabstract20
2026-04-19Wave Function Collapse Algorithmkarmakurtisaani41
2026-04-30Bitmap and tilemap generation from a single exampleLatest 20+ point returnfuturecat8314