With the release of the new 1.8 snapshot today, I decided to load up a world in order to test the new features. However, upon seeing the resulting generation, I have to wonder if the terrain gen has changed at all in 1.8, or if I just happened to get a strange seed.Here's a screenshot of the world I generated:
Now the strange terrain anomalies may be hard to spot, so here's a highlighted version:
Each color and number corresponds to the following list.
1: Inconsistent Biome Types
Minecraft 1.7 was centered around fixing all the oddities of the post-beta-1.6 terrain gen, such as lack of biome variety, flat, uninteresting terrain, and most of all, biomes of vastly different temperatures spawning next to eachother. So why is there a Snow Plains and Tundra Hills biome next to a Savanna and a Desert? Your guess is as good as mine. I've yet to run into this on any other 1.7 world, so it seems unlikely that it would just generate like that.
2: Varied Base-Terrain Levels
This one may have just been a coincidence, but if you look at the Tundra biome in the center, you'll notice that, aside from the large peak in the middle, most of its terrain is level, but raised about 10 blocks above the base terrain line of the Savanna, Desert, and Snow Plains. This could have just been by random chance, but f it IS an intended feature, these raised sections are certainly a welcome change from the monotonous smoothness of most terrain gen.
3: Lakes?
Before Beta 1.6, the terrain generator used to be able to generate large, shallow lakes within biomes which were completely isolated from oceans or rivers. This appears to have returned, as the entire area of that pool of water is 1-block deep, isolated from other water sources, and labeled as Desert biome, not Ocean or River.
4: More Frequent/Glitchy Desert Temples
It may be hard to see, but in both circled green areas, there lies a Desert Temple. They are very close together, only about two hundred blocks apart as opposed to the usual 1-per-5-or-6-biomes-worth-of-space, and you'll notice that the farther one is located in a Snow Plains biome. This is almost definitely a bug, but it is a rather amusing one nonetheless. Here's a closer screenshot of the "Snow Fort".
5: Odd, Tiny "Desert Patches"
Another strange terrain feature and/or bug, these small patches of desert seem to generate sparratically throughout the oddly-placed Snow Plains and Tundra biomes. Three of these can be seen in the first screenshot, sunken into the ground of the Tundra-plateau, and one more can be seen in the above spoiler, which was likely the source of the half-buried, snow covered Desert Temple. Why these odd terrain spots occur is beyond me, but it may have something to do with the strange placement of the snow biomes next to the hot Desert and Savanna biomes.
Anyways, the seed for this world is -8744500570900078982, if you want to try it for yourself. Everything mentioned here is right at spawn, so there may be even more weird crap further out. Leave a comment and some screenshots if you've also experienced any terrain weirdness as of 1.8, so that I can make sure I'm not just crazy.
Yes, I tested with a 1.7 world and no chunk errors when generating new terrain with the new snapshot... Then it was a rare seed.
Huh, guess it was just a coincidence then. Oh well. (Although I am still suspicious of the desert pockets. Like Newlight said, I'm pretty sure that was a bug that got fixed waaaaay back in beta...)
If this is the case, then I think my faith in Mojang and minecraft's future may have been restored! Here is hoping that they actually fixed the terrain!
Now the strange terrain anomalies may be hard to spot, so here's a highlighted version:
Each color and number corresponds to the following list.
1: Inconsistent Biome Types
Minecraft 1.7 was centered around fixing all the oddities of the post-beta-1.6 terrain gen, such as lack of biome variety, flat, uninteresting terrain, and most of all, biomes of vastly different temperatures spawning next to eachother. So why is there a Snow Plains and Tundra Hills biome next to a Savanna and a Desert? Your guess is as good as mine. I've yet to run into this on any other 1.7 world, so it seems unlikely that it would just generate like that.
2: Varied Base-Terrain Levels
This one may have just been a coincidence, but if you look at the Tundra biome in the center, you'll notice that, aside from the large peak in the middle, most of its terrain is level, but raised about 10 blocks above the base terrain line of the Savanna, Desert, and Snow Plains. This could have just been by random chance, but f it IS an intended feature, these raised sections are certainly a welcome change from the monotonous smoothness of most terrain gen.
3: Lakes?
Before Beta 1.6, the terrain generator used to be able to generate large, shallow lakes within biomes which were completely isolated from oceans or rivers. This appears to have returned, as the entire area of that pool of water is 1-block deep, isolated from other water sources, and labeled as Desert biome, not Ocean or River.
4: More Frequent/Glitchy Desert Temples
It may be hard to see, but in both circled green areas, there lies a Desert Temple. They are very close together, only about two hundred blocks apart as opposed to the usual 1-per-5-or-6-biomes-worth-of-space, and you'll notice that the farther one is located in a Snow Plains biome. This is almost definitely a bug, but it is a rather amusing one nonetheless. Here's a closer screenshot of the "Snow Fort".
5: Odd, Tiny "Desert Patches"
Another strange terrain feature and/or bug, these small patches of desert seem to generate sparratically throughout the oddly-placed Snow Plains and Tundra biomes. Three of these can be seen in the first screenshot, sunken into the ground of the Tundra-plateau, and one more can be seen in the above spoiler, which was likely the source of the half-buried, snow covered Desert Temple. Why these odd terrain spots occur is beyond me, but it may have something to do with the strange placement of the snow biomes next to the hot Desert and Savanna biomes.
Anyways, the seed for this world is -8744500570900078982, if you want to try it for yourself. Everything mentioned here is right at spawn, so there may be even more weird crap further out. Leave a comment and some screenshots if you've also experienced any terrain weirdness as of 1.8, so that I can make sure I'm not just crazy.
Nothing to see here~
Also, the biome in the picture is Extreme Hills (Not tundra hills),which often acts as a divider for most biomes,
Huh, guess it was just a coincidence then. Oh well. (Although I am still suspicious of the desert pockets. Like Newlight said, I'm pretty sure that was a bug that got fixed waaaaay back in beta...)