Randy Casstevens wrote:

> Do some random seeds give better quality results for

> MersenneTwisterFast?  I have heard that random seeds should be odd

> numbers, large numbers, and/or prime numbers, but does it matter for

> MersenneTwisterFast?

>   

In short, for any good quality PRNG (the MersenneTwister would be one) 

the choice of seed does not matter at all as far as "quality" goes.



The only thing to possibly worry about is if you start many different 

simulations with nearby seeds. For some generators (depending on how the 

seed is expanded to the internal state of the generator) this will be a 

problem and for some others, it won't be. What the state of the Mersenne 

Twister as implemented in MASON is, I don't know.



A better (or at least safer) approach than the Mersenne Twister would be 

to have a generator that generates distinct streams. This article 

discusses the desirability of distinct streams; 

http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~lecuyer/myftp/papers/rstream.pdf



Regards,

  Pelle