After a long break from Minecraft I was convinced to come back for some projects. I'm working with the team behind JurassiCraft to help with biomes and world generation, and as part of that I'm working on updating Highlands.
Because of the changes to blocks and world generation in the meantime, a lot of the mod has to be remade from scratch. So whether you liked the original Highlands or you're new to Minecraft in 1.8 and have never been able to have a mod that adds biomes, please suggest what features (either from Highlands 2.0 or completely new) that you'd like to see.
I've been working on a new chunk generator, the piece of code that generates the terrain layout of the world. The new generator works a lot like customized worlds, letting me play around with settings and create some pretty awesome mountains that are taller and more realistic than in default worlds. I attached some screenshots below. Also, saplings work now for all the trees in Highlands. Still to go are the small plants, and a few more biomes. Download will be released soon!
The first screenshot is the Badlands biome
This screenshot is vanilla Minecraft's Extreme Hills.
Hello. I love that you are continuing the highlands mod. I hope you don't mind but I would like to suggest some biomes and terrain/environmental features I understand and realize that some of these are already in the mod or are planned. I just wanted to give my suggestions to help make minecraft as realistic as possible (water biomes)
-new types of water (brackish,Salt,fresh) this would allow to achive a realstic minecraft coastline (biomes) -river,floodplains,lakes freshwater marshes,bogs/bayous,estuaries/mangroves,salt marshes etc
Thank you for the long list of suggestions! I do plan to improve the tropical and subtropical stuff more. I visited Ecuador earlier this summer and I saw a big variety of landscapes there that I'll try to incorporate in some way.
Realistic water might not be easily possible. Forge doesn't support rendering custom fluids, and I think that making the distinction would be more trouble than it's worth. Sea water would have to look exactly like fresh water, and then people would say "help, I filled my bucket with water and now it's killing my crops rather than watering them". Coastline biomes are possible but limited by the width of the coastline, which is currently very narrow unless Large Biomes is chosen or unless you make it a regular biome, then it will generate in non-coast places.
In my opinion, Minecraft made a big mistake with its terrain generation in choosing the biomes first and the height second (based on the biomes). This is completely backwards from real life and prevents the flora and ground composition from really following terrain features. I wish I could fix it for good but I just don't have the time and skill to do so.
I'd like to see some more plants in the Highlands mod. Adding plants and foliage really does add more immersion IMO. Two tall plants would also be great too! Can we also get a few new wood plank types to match the variety of trees?
Thank you for the long list of suggestions! I do plan to improve the tropical and subtropical stuff more. I visited Ecuador earlier this summer and I saw a big variety of landscapes there that I'll try to incorporate in some way.
Realistic water might not be easily possible. Forge doesn't support rendering custom fluids, and I think that making the distinction would be more trouble than it's worth. Sea water would have to look exactly like fresh water, and then people would say "help, I filled my bucket with water and now it's killing my crops rather than watering them". Coastline biomes are possible but limited by the width of the coastline, which is currently very narrow unless Large Biomes is chosen or unless you make it a regular biome, then it will generate in non-coast places.
In my opinion, Minecraft made a big mistake with its terrain generation in choosing the biomes first and the height second (based on the biomes). This is completely backwards from real life and prevents the flora and ground composition from really following terrain features. I wish I could fix it for good but I just don't have the time and skill to do so.
I completely understand! I use world painter to make a lot of realistic landscapes and worlds which fixes a lot of these problems. Its the biomes and environmental aspects that I think this mod and many of its kind would be good to work on. For different water maybe all it would be would be that for salt water would apply to ocean,salt marshes,salt rivers,bays,estuaries, etc brackish water for river mouths,rivers,estuaries,mangroves etc freshwater for lakes,rivers,streams,floodplains,freshwater marshes and swamps. Also I thinks its so cool you went to Ecuador that's been a place I have wanted to visit, Ecuador does also have a lot of the forest biomes I was talking about like montane,dry and moist broad leaf and cloud forests, Ecuador has some of the most diverse cloud forests in the world. I wish you best of luck with the mods future. also p.s for the different water types just change the water colors and tints and have it correspond with its correct biome if that's possible and maybe things will work out
Almost... The screenshots were actually taken using different realistic styled customized world settings. After posting them, I actually got something much closer to Mountains O'Many working even better. See the second screenshot, most settings are the same as MoM except for the noise scale, which is larger.
Some more screenshots for you all! The border between two new biomes, Tropical Hills and Dry Forest, and an amazing mountain composed of multiple biomes. Also, as you can see in the second screenshot, small plants are working!
After a long break from Minecraft I was convinced to come back for some projects. I'm working with the team behind JurassiCraft to help with biomes and world generation, and as part of that I'm working on updating Highlands.
In case you don't know, Highlands was a biome mod that I created and maintained from Minecraft 1.5 to 1.6. You can see the forum post for it here.
Features:
18 biomes
8 trees
6 plants
Realistic mountains
Improvements to vanilla biomes
Fixes biome rarity
Wood, Leaves, and Planks blocks
Biomes:
Adirondacks
Alps
Badlands
Bald Hill
Bamboo Forest
Dry Forest
Grey Mountains
Highlands
Lake
Lowlands
Meadow
Mojave
Pinelands
Poplar Hills
Redwood Forest
Steppe
Tropical Hills
Tropical Islands
Trees:
Aspen
Poplar
Eucalyptus
Great Oak
Palm
Fir
Redwood
Bamboo
also: deciduous and pine shrubs
Because of the changes to blocks and world generation in the meantime, a lot of the mod has to be remade from scratch. So whether you liked the original Highlands or you're new to Minecraft in 1.8 and have never been able to have a mod that adds biomes, please suggest what features (either from Highlands 2.0 or completely new) that you'd like to see.
Aww yeah, Highlands being revamped! Cant wait!
Here's a little progress update:
I've been working on a new chunk generator, the piece of code that generates the terrain layout of the world. The new generator works a lot like customized worlds, letting me play around with settings and create some pretty awesome mountains that are taller and more realistic than in default worlds. I attached some screenshots below. Also, saplings work now for all the trees in Highlands. Still to go are the small plants, and a few more biomes. Download will be released soon!
The first screenshot is the Badlands biome
This screenshot is vanilla Minecraft's Extreme Hills.
Hello. I love that you are continuing the highlands mod. I hope you don't mind but I would like to suggest some biomes and terrain/environmental features I understand and realize that some of these are already in the mod or are planned. I just wanted to give my suggestions to help make minecraft as realistic as possible (water biomes)
-new types of water (brackish,Salt,fresh) this would allow to achive a realstic minecraft coastline (biomes) -river,floodplains,lakes freshwater marshes,bogs/bayous,estuaries/mangroves,salt marshes etc
(land biomes) Tropical moist broadleaf rainforest, Tropical dry rainforests , Montane/cloud forests, deciduous/temperate, temperate coniferous forests
Boreal forests, Evergreen Forests,Temperate rainforests, Atlantic Forests, redwood forests
tropical/sub tropical savanna,temperate savannas,Mediterranean savannas,flooded savannas,montane savannas
hot/dry,coastal,cold and semiarid deserts
(ocean biomes) reefs,sea grass,kelp forests,volcanic/geothermal vents,(beach biomes),beach dunes i.e Tropical beaches and temperate beaches, alpine beaches (rocky) (misc biomes) Tropics,islands/island chains/volcanoes land volcanoes ,ocean trenches/canyons , land canyons,salt flats, soda lakes,hot springs, geysers,glaciers etc
Keep up the great work I look forward to the first release!
Thank you for the long list of suggestions! I do plan to improve the tropical and subtropical stuff more. I visited Ecuador earlier this summer and I saw a big variety of landscapes there that I'll try to incorporate in some way.
Realistic water might not be easily possible. Forge doesn't support rendering custom fluids, and I think that making the distinction would be more trouble than it's worth. Sea water would have to look exactly like fresh water, and then people would say "help, I filled my bucket with water and now it's killing my crops rather than watering them". Coastline biomes are possible but limited by the width of the coastline, which is currently very narrow unless Large Biomes is chosen or unless you make it a regular biome, then it will generate in non-coast places.
In my opinion, Minecraft made a big mistake with its terrain generation in choosing the biomes first and the height second (based on the biomes). This is completely backwards from real life and prevents the flora and ground composition from really following terrain features. I wish I could fix it for good but I just don't have the time and skill to do so.
Good to see a revival for the mod!
I'd like to see some more plants in the Highlands mod. Adding plants and foliage really does add more immersion IMO. Two tall plants would also be great too! Can we also get a few new wood plank types to match the variety of trees?
I completely understand! I use world painter to make a lot of realistic landscapes and worlds which fixes a lot of these problems. Its the biomes and environmental aspects that I think this mod and many of its kind would be good to work on. For different water maybe all it would be would be that for salt water would apply to ocean,salt marshes,salt rivers,bays,estuaries, etc brackish water for river mouths,rivers,estuaries,mangroves etc freshwater for lakes,rivers,streams,floodplains,freshwater marshes and swamps. Also I thinks its so cool you went to Ecuador that's been a place I have wanted to visit, Ecuador does also have a lot of the forest biomes I was talking about like montane,dry and moist broad leaf and cloud forests, Ecuador has some of the most diverse cloud forests in the world. I wish you best of luck with the mods future. also p.s for the different water types just change the water colors and tints and have it correspond with its correct biome if that's possible and maybe things will work out
Almost... The screenshots were actually taken using different realistic styled customized world settings. After posting them, I actually got something much closer to Mountains O'Many working even better. See the second screenshot, most settings are the same as MoM except for the noise scale, which is larger.
Some more screenshots for you all! The border between two new biomes, Tropical Hills and Dry Forest, and an amazing mountain composed of multiple biomes. Also, as you can see in the second screenshot, small plants are working!
Hey sdj64,
welcome back.
I am really glad, that you are back.
I missed Highlands in 1.7.10.
Best,
Zerant
Get the download for the preview version here: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/minecraft-mods/2494877-highlands-uncharted-territory-finally-for