Cycling 74 » Topic: RNG in C-external instances

RNG in C-external instances

11olsen — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:44:34 +0000

hallo, i’m trying to generate a different random number in different instances of an external. can you give me some advise

i’m using the normal rand(). Is the sdk offering something else/better?

the number is generated at object initialization. could it happen, if i use time as seed, that two instances generate the same number because initialization of both objects happens faster than 1ms?? if so, what can give me faster seeds?

Thanbks O.

Re: RNG in C-external instances

nicolas danet — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:18:01 +0000

Hello,

AFAIK class is loaded once (“main” method of your external) ; so isn’t it possible to seed the RNG there ?

Re: RNG in C-external instances

11olsen — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:48:51 +0000

hey, not sure if i get what you mean. “class is loaded once”?
i’m using the “new” function to generate the number. it doesn’t matter where i seed it. Interessting for me is what happens if i load a patch with two instances of the ext, how can i make sure both instances are generating a different random number when they are created.
with different seeds, right? how do i get different seeds so fast?

i don’t want to do intance to instance messages for this simple task.

tell me if it’s still hard to understand my question.
O.

Re: RNG in C-external instances

nicolas danet — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:06:46 +0000

Hello,

for example in case of a [flop] external you can seed the RNG there …

int main (void)
{
t_class	*c = NULL;

c = class_new ("flop", (method)flop_new, (method)flop_free, (long)(sizeof(t_flop)), 0L, A_GIMME, 0);

class_addmethod	(c, (method)flop_assist, "assist", A_CANT, 0);
class_addmethod (c, (method)flop_bang,	 "bang", 0);

srand ((unsigned int)time(NULL));

class_register (CLASS_BOX, c);

flop_class = c;

return 0;
}

… instead of in the flop_new() function as the main() method is called only one time (for the FIRST created [flop] object). You can still use rand() function in flop_new() to get your random number. Problem occurs if you seed the RNG in flop_new() with time if instantiation occurs in the same millisecond ; but as you instantiate it only the first time it will be OK.

Is it clear ? I don’t think so ;-)

Re: RNG in C-external instances

11olsen — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:19:28 +0000

do you mean main() is only called once even if a second and third instance is created? so that rand_s in instance 2 will create random number 2 of the seed? i’ll try that out.
thanks for your help so far..

Re: RNG in C-external instances

nicolas danet — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:52:33 +0000

Hello,

that’s exactly what i mean ;-)

Re: RNG in C-external instances

11olsen — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:39:08 +0000

cool, it works. and learned something..
thanks, bye