Random points inside a parallelogram

Question

I have a 4 side convex Polygon defined by 4 points in 2D, and I want to be able to generate random points inside it.

If it really simplifies the problem, I can limit

Answer 1

What kind of distribution do you want the points to have? If you don't care, the above methods will work fine. If you want a uniform distribution, the following procedure will work: Divide the polygon into two triangles, a and b. Let A(a) and A(b) be their areas. Sample a point p from the uniform distribution on the interval between 0 and A(a)+A(b). If p < A(a), choose triangle a. Otherwise, choose triangle b. Choose a vertex v of the chosen triangle, and let c and d be the vectors corresponding to the sides of the triangle. Sample two numbers x and y from the exponential distribution with unit average. Then the point (xc+yd)/(x+y) is a sample from the uniform distribution on the polygon.