Minecraft Forums

I get tired of seeing snow and ice right next to desert and swamp.

And I get tired of only seeing flat empty plains.

It's nice to have room to build, but we could use some hilly areas as well.

Oh, and mountains need some foliage, they're rather bald.

The old terrain was ridiculously nonsensical. It reminded me of Pandemonium. While there are some combinations of features I miss, I wouldn't want to lose anything we've gained.

There are so many people whining about how big oceans are now, but it's not as if enormous oceans comprise anywhere near even 10% of what will be found in an average seed. Each time the world generating code is redone I make 100+ worlds just to check out what it will do now, and very few of them will put you in or near an ocean.

It apparently doesn't occur some people that other players want a big area covered with one biome type because that is what appeals to them aesthetically. It's not as if seeds with lots of variety disappeared, we've simply gained some that have a uniform appearance as well.

What is needed in the world generating code is for the application of flora and fauna to the world to be tied more to the geology, and both of those to be separated from the topography (excluding oceans which of course need to be at sea level, and swamps which need a level patch of land regardless of elevation). That will give us back our hills and valleys, as well as allowing desert mountains and forested mountains.

It wouldn't hurt for the elevation (Y) to be increased, or at least offer the option to have a greater height limit.

You know, I'm a bit bothered by the lack of variety now, too. When terrain shape and biome were independent, there was more variety. Now, if you've seen one biome, any other instance of that biome is about the same. This is boring. Unless there is a serious change to the biome generation (from what I know of the current model, it should be possible), I think I'm actually going to mark this update as a downgrade in the terrain generation. I used to like it, but it's getting repetitive.

I like the new Terrain Generation to a point... When trees and stuff are spawning in half swamp and half green area, one side of the tree is bright green the other side is ugly blackish it don't blend very well. I will also agree I can't seem to find really nice build sites like in 1.7-. 1.7 seem to always have beautiful scenery, why 1.8+ is one big dark mess.

Only thing I dont like right now are the lack of Savannah biomes =\
Those were my favorite.

I wish I could post one of those aerial views of the world I am in. It is stinkin' amazing! Vast mountain spires, plains, swamps, deserts, and oceans. They aren't all close by, but with Far Viewing Distance, you can always see at least 3 biomes when you turn in a 360. From where me and a buddy setup camp, we found 3 abandoned mines and a stronghold. I don't remember the seed number, but I think it was the one where we did the phrase "Thanks Mojang". It started us on an island, but if you go NW from there, you pass a village, then hit the mountain range where we stayed.

For now, we aren't exploring much due to the fear of reloading for 1.9. We are hoping we can maybe just not explore any new chunks and then update to 1.9.

I love the biomes how they are. I love how they are so much larger and I LOVE the oceans.

I found a ravine which takes just less than an entire day to get to from my house. Using a mod mapping program I made a map of al the places I explored and using that map and recognizing where rivers and curves in the land are, I can navigate myself from point A to point be, even if its an hour (of real time) walking that way. The large biomes are much easier to navigate too in my opinion.

And the oceans are EPIC. I love exploring the ocean and finding new islands and at the same time being careful not to get lost and remember wat direction i sailed from. I even used my 1.7 world for my 1.8 and i had to sail 20 minutes across an ocean to find the 1.8 land. I made trips back and forth because I was just scouting the land from my boat. The world being this large is just too fun for me.

Hey OP

New terrain generation + 256 height limit =

http://imgur.com/a/OnL1T

I think you have a point. I think the new biomes are very pretty up high, but quite honestly, every biome is basically the same. Every swamp is going to be like every swamp. The bigger biomes are awesome, but there's no spontaneity. It all feels the same. :sad.gif:

I wish the biomes were bigger, like they are, but let's bring back the spontaneity.

I guess what I would really like to see is an increased distance option greater than "Far". Since these biomes are getting larger, being able to see that mountain in the VERY far off in the distance would be great. I kind of wish the renderer would draw blocks out to the imaginary horizon line. I know that there isn't really a true horizon, however, there IS a visible line that is meant to be a horizon. Maybe some sort of level-of-detail cue that combines far away 2x2x2 or 3x3x3 blocks into a single block until you reach a set distance from it, then more detail comes in. It would have to be far enough that you wouldn't notice the detail pop.

As a longtime user of BiomeTerrainMod and PhoenixTerrainMod after it, I have seen some improvement in the vanilla MC biome generator. Let's rundown briefly what those improvements are, and ideas to turn around some of the things it's lost.

Improvements:

Biomes are bigger. Average biome size in 1.7.3 = 150 m diameter and very irregular borders. Average 1.8 biome size = 250-500 m and more regular, abrupt borders. So if you really like desert, you have a good chance of finding a desert that it will take you a minecraft day to walk across. And if you don't like desert, you can leave it behind at the riverbank and get a distinctly different biome on the other shore.

Biome and climate are somewhat linked to terrain height. I've always thought that temperatures at higher elevations should mimic the lower temps you find in real mountains on Earth. A bit of snow at the top of Kilimanjaro, so to speak. I don't know if this will be true for 1.9 when snow returns to Minecraft. But so far it seems that plains are flat and somewhat dry, swamps are flat and somewhat damp, forests are somewhere in between on both height and moisture. The more congruence there is between terrain contour and moisture/temp, the more sensible the biomes seem.

New mountain, ocean biomes are more realistic looking than previous Minecraft mountains and water bodies, on average. Pre-1.8 mountains used to be entirely random. Sometimes you would see a single jutting cliff among a vast expanse of rolling plains. Other times you would see a series of chunks with high volatility swelling into rolling hills and peaks with deep valleys and occasional overhangs. The grouping of mountains into a separate biome makes some sense. Geologically speaking, mountains tend to be in groups since they represent the seams of tectonic plates or folded areas of the crust. The shapes of the mountains are improved as well. While MC native terrain generator still makes its fair share of awkward jutting spires and cliff stepoffs, swiss-cheese pylons, etc., the trend is towards broader, smoother sloping peaks and more solid, more massive heights spanning two or more chunks. These are the more buildable and versatile mountains for heavy development. Same with oceans. Deeper, wider water bodies overall and oceans in particular give water lovers plenty of wiggle room for building massive Atlantean projects or inhabiting a desert island.

Now for the negatives.

Abrupt biome borders. These detract from the game's realism and atmosphere. Gradual transitions are better. The biomes should conform roughly to the rivers, but a fair bit of blending is expected, and desirable. Water tints should blend gently into one another, the way grass tints used to do, and not have the stark contrast between swamp and river as shown in screenshots of 1.9.

1.9 prerelease worlds show major chunk border issues. These occur in freshly created 1.9 worlds, not just on the border of older chunks from older worlds. It appears the terrain generator simply fails to generate one or more chunks, and these are later filled in at random with vastly different terrain. It's unsightly, dangerous, and difficult to build around/into. I hope this is resolved before release.

Ravines could use some refinement. Currently they have a fairly uniform depth and width profile. It would be nice to have some shallower ravines, and some deeper ones, some broad, some narrow. They are also quite common. It would be better to have fewer, larger, more tortuous and varied ones. The coding for these seems to be a 2D curved vector path is drawn on the surface, and a narrow ovoid is extruded along that path, digging out a deep U-shaped winding ravine of land. Alter the dimensions of the ovoid or use a different 2-D shape to dig ravines, valleys, and tunnels of multiple shapes. Consider using a 3-D vector path so ravines have different depths along their length.

Mountains still need a fair bit of work. I have never been a fan of abrupt cliffs, overhangs, needles, and other such swiss-cheese mountain architecture. A mountain to me should look massive, tall, sloping, conical or bell-shaped, with discrete valleys and passes between fellow mountains. It should have a broad base spanning multiple chunks. I suspect this is the noise generator of MC native terrain having some difficulty. There are ways of locally "simplifying" the noise function to regularize and damp the tendency to fractionate the elevations. Steal a page from PhoenixTerrainMod and do this to some extent or other.

The only thing I think I agree with you on is that swamps are generated with too high a frequency.

I agree completely with OP. New terrain is less awesome, there aren't mountains everywhere, areas are way too huge...
I miss there being mountains in ALL biomes, and forests weren't as effing huge...