[Mod] Skylands [4.2.1] [skylands]

[HeroOfTheWinds]

The name is self explanatory. Skylands adds floating islands to Minetest, based on paramat's original floindev mod.

The main difference here is that Skylands generates more biomes than floindev. Additionally, it generates more kinds of ore and in greater amounts. And now, starting with version 3.0, it uses different parameters for the noise used when generating islands, creating islands with much greater height, terrain variation, wild land formations, and even larger caves!

Among these, the largest additions are those of extra biomes and lakes! Biomes include regular grasslands, which are most like the surface world, snow biomes that have dirt_with_snow instead of dirt_with_grass as well as frozen lakes, desert biomes, which have desert sand and desert stone, as well as generate cacti and dry shrubs. Finally, there is my own original addition, the volcanic biome, which is composed mostly of obsidian, gravel, and lava lakes. If moreblocks is installed, it will also have coal stone; otherwise, regular stone will be used. Furthermore, in version 0.8 of this mod, the volcanic biome has triple the chance of generating diamonds.

As of version 2.5, skylands now incorporates a humidity-temperature based biome system, using the same engine from paramat's [watershed] mod. Additionally, it has all the biomes from watershed: taiga, tundra, snowy plains, grasslands, drylands, deciduous forests, savanna, rainforests, and desert. Volcanic biomes are generated independently, so they can appear anywhere. However, the dry grass and icy dirt textures from watershed have been changed to a more "classic" look that is in keeping with the base game. Furthermore, I have also included Jordach's wheat field biome from Big Freaking Dig! Look for it near deciduous forests.

Now in version 4.0, i have two more biomes, one major and one minor. The minor one is the sandstone biome, which is covered with sand in low humidity areas, with a layer of sandstone beneath, making for naturally obtainable sandstone. The major biome addition is the Heaven biome. Spawning by default at altitudes above 8000 nodes, it's a long road to get there, but well worth it: golden trees with potent golden apples appear, as well as healing springs that recover your health just by standing in them. Plus, it has a first for this mod: pregenerated buildings made of unique Quartz nodes and other new stone varieties, modeled after the Greek Parthenon. 4.0 also introduces stairs support, with several varieties of stairs.

Now with version 3.0, the reason of the islands' floating nature is explained by the presence of a brand new ore: Cavorite! This ore, based on the material of the same name that was featured heavily in H. G. Wells' book The First Men in the Moon, makes everything above it virtually weightless in the book. While Cavorite currently has no use in Minetest, the next version of this mod will introduce a few uses for it, including upgrading tools to make them faster. Also in version 3.0, if Mesecons is installed, silicon appears as an ore.

In version 4.2, Cavorite can be crafted into handles for tools by placing two lumps of the ore vertically on the crafting grid. Put any of the default tools at the top of the grid with two handles lined up directly below to upgrade tools. Upgraded tools dig 50% faster and have a 33% shorter punch interval when attacking entities. However, they also only have 75% of the durability of their normal counterparts.

In 0.8, the lakes can be anywhere from small ponds with a radius as low as 4 blocks to huge basins with a radius of 15-20 blocks. Much effort had been made to reduce spillage, but there still will be occasions when water or lava will leak out of the sides or the base.
However, version 2.0 generates much more natural lakes based off of paramat's highlandpools mod. Also, that same engine was optimized for even faster performance late in the 3.x development cycle.

Note that this mod used env:set_node in v.0.8, so it used to take a while to generate chunks. Unlike the original flolands, islands now generate between y=700 and y=33,000.
Contrarily, the version 2.0 onward uses the voxel manipulator engine used by floindev to generate chunks at high speed, capping around 4 seconds on a slower PC.

Changelog:

+ Spoiler

version 2.0:

• Island generator switched to voxelmanip, increasing speed dramatically
• Lake generator switched to highlandpools mod to create more natural bodies of water
• Lakes can now be water, lava, or ice-topped with water underneath
• Volcanic biome now generates two brand new nodes, cinder and cinder_block
• Moreblocks and moreores support expanded
• Ore generation now occurs in clusters, making it much more like the surface world
• More kinds of surface flora
• Volcanic biomes have perpetual fires dotted about that can be put our like regular fire

version 2.5:

• Biome engine moved to humidity/temperature
• Watershed biomes added
• Wheat Field biome added
• Other tweaks under the hood

version 3.0:

• Huge code cleanup and modular design with code split up between several .lua files
• Island structure has undergone a large makeover, and now uses noisier noise to create much more varied landscapes and land formations
• Caves are now up to twice the size that they were in previous versions
• Cavorite and Silicon added as ores. Cavorite implementation is incomplete
• Fixed a few bugs involving volcanic biomes

version 3.1:

• Islands are no longer limited by vertical chunk boundaries (thanks paramat)
• Noise parameters now create much more 3D islands than before (also with paramat)

version 4.0:

• Sandstone and Heaven biomes fully implemented
• Lake generator optimized and improved
• stairs support added
• Many new nodes

version 4.2:
[list][*]Marble and Granite now appear in veins when technic is installed
[*]Zinc, Chromium, and Uranium also appear if technic is installed
[*]Cavorite can now be crafted into tool handles that can upgrade default tools

License: WTFPL
Dependencies: moreores?, moreblocks?, mesecons?, technic? default, fire

GitHub: https://github.com/HeroOfTheWinds/skyla ... ree/master
Download [3.1]: https://github.com/HeroOfTheWinds/skyla ... master.zip (unzip and rename to 'skylands')

Legacy versions:
[0.8]
GitHub: https://github.com/HeroOfTheWinds/skyla ... ersion-0.8
Download: https://github.com/HeroOfTheWinds/skyla ... ersion-0.8
[2.5]
GitHub: https://github.com/HeroOfTheWinds/skyla ... ersion-2.5
Download: https://github.com/HeroOfTheWinds/skyla ... ersion-2.5

Now for some screenshots! Just for this mod, I dealt with the drawtime and turned on smooth lighting even though I'm using a laptop.

+ Spoiler

The new volcanic biome:


Large vertical island formation leading to another large island:


Example of 3.1's new terrain formations:


Combined effect of the larger caves and sprawling undersides of the islands:


Wheat Field Biome:


Frozen lake in the snowy plains biome with pine trees all around:


Rainforest/Jungle biome:


Dry plains:


Mini-islands rising from above a deciduous forest biome:


Savanna with new acacia trees:


Example of several ore clumps found close together:


Volcanic biome overshadowed by parts of the island:


Large natural lake:


Overhead view of a medium size island with three different biomes:


Cavorite and Silicon ores:


Heaven Biome:

[ZachyGames]

I can't see screenshots.

[jenova99sephiros]

Gool!

[HeroOfTheWinds]

I can't see screenshots.

They're in the spoiler tag. I just didn't want to make the OP too long by default.

[bajanhgk]

:-D really cool 1+

[CraigyDavi]

Very nice!

[paramat]

This looks awesome, good to see flolands forked, funny that you used the pre-LVM floatlands =) there is a much faster version https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8560
Good timing ... im thinking about next-generation float lands.

[LionsDen]

I would like a game mode that instead of generating a single large planet, the entire dimension would consist of floating lands from small to huge. There would be small bits and huge lands with biomes and ores. No flying so you would need to create bridges between the floating islands. It just seems more challenging and fun to me.

[HeroOfTheWinds]

This looks awesome, good to see flolands forked, funny that you used the pre-LVM floatlands =) there is a much faster version https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8560
Good timing ... im thinking about next-generation float lands.

Glad you like it! I wasn't even aware that there was a newer/faster version of the mod out there. I knew about the indev mapgen having the option, but didn't know where to look for the indev code. Looks like I might be busy modding the new floating islands mod.

Possible ideas for how I can soup it up:

• Add a volcanic biome like in my current mod

• Add a snow biome like above

• Add water and lava

• optionally include moreores and moreblocks support (I always wish there were ways to get coal stone and iron stone without crafting it manually.)

• Make the ores generate in clusters or strata, like on the surface world. (Dunno if I can make this work though.)

I would like a game mode that instead of generating a single large planet, the entire dimension would consist of floating lands from small to huge. There would be small bits and huge lands with biomes and ores. No flying so you would need to create bridges between the floating islands. It just seems more challenging and fun to me.

While I'm sure someone might make a whole version of the game based off this idea if there was a huge push for it, you can always settle for second best: find a way or make a mod to set the default player spawn zone to way up high in the sky where skylands are, and then revoke the fly and teleport privileges so that people will be forced to make bridges. However, I highly recommend changing a few of the settings in the mod if you do so, such as increasing the amplitude of the islands so that there will be greater size variation, as well as turn off central voids.

[bajanhgk]

i got a problem

Your phone or window isn't wide enough to display the code box. If it's a phone, try rotating it to landscape mode.

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17:29:10: ERROR[main]: ModError: ModError: Failed to load and run C:\Users\bajenhgk\Downloads\minetest-0.4.9\bin\..\mods\skylands\init.lua

[paramat]

I would like a game mode that instead of generating a single large planet, the entire dimension would consist of floating lands from small to huge. There would be small bits and huge lands with biomes and ores. No flying so you would need to create bridges between the floating islands. It just seems more challenging and fun to me.

Good idea and inspiring, in a basic form i can do this easily by adding another, much larger, fissure system to one of my realms, then vary the width of the fissures so they become massive gaps that chop up the realm into float lands, might quickly cook up this for people to try.

[LionsDen]

That sounds cool paramat. :)

[HeroOfTheWinds]

i got a problem

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17:29:10: ERROR[main]: ModError: ModError: Failed to load and run C:\Users\bajenhgk\Downloads\minetest-0.4.9\bin\..\mods\skylands\init.lua

Could you show more of the error, particularly the part relating to Lua? I don't get any errors here when I try to load the mod.

[Kilarin]

Good idea and inspiring, in a basic form i can do this easily by adding another, much larger, fissure system to one of my realms, then vary the width of the fissures so they become massive gaps that chop up the realm into float lands, might quickly cook up this for people to try.

Count me on the list of people who would LOVE to see this!

I wonder how much of a small island's mass you might have to use up just to build a bridge long enough to reach the next island. :D

[HeroOfTheWinds]

It would depend largely on the original size of the island. In the current mod, this would most likely vary directly with the altitude of the island. You'd have no problem getting to the next at y=10000, but at the base (y=800) you would probably end up repeatedly digging up the bridge behind you until you got there.


EDIT: (Just to avoid double-posting)
After searching around the forum some more and checking out other mapgen mods for tips on how to accomplish certain things, I think I stumbled on the answer to my question on how to make better, more natural looking pools: paramat's highlandpools mod. I'm thinking of porting it directly into the skylands mod that is in-progress, and having it check biomes to create lava pools, regular lakes, and frozen lakes.
That is not all that is going on right now either though. I already edited floatindev to generate snow and volcano biomes, added moreblocks support, and moreores support. I also intend to add a new cinder node, as well as cinder blocks that can be crafted from the former. Additionally, I'm planning on making ores generate in clusters. My current plan of attack on that note is to define my own stone_with_(currentore) nodes, give them an abm, and have them spill over into the neighboring blocks with the original stone_with nodes, then replace itself to stop the abm from continuing.

[bajanhgk]

here

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17:33:13: ERROR[main]: Failed to load and run script from
17:33:13: ERROR[main]: C:\Users\bajenhgk\Downloads\minetest-0.4.9\bin\..\mods\skylands\init.lua:
17:33:13: ERROR[main]: cannot open C:\Users\bajenhgk\Downloads\minetest-0.4.9\bin\..\mods\skylands\init.lua: No such file or directory

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Apparently your game couldn't find the init.lua file. It certainly was there in the folder, I just made it so that you copy the folder out of the unzipped folder.

However, seeing that people usually structure their directories differently, I changed the ordering of my repository on GitHub. Now you can just download, unzip, and rename to skylands. So, now it should work again. :)

Dev update: I have succeeded at making ores generate in clusters, now I'm refining the code of that function so that it works even better. Once I do that, add cinder+cinderblocks, and add regular, lava and frozen lakes, I'll release v. 2.0.

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Alright! I finished upgrading version 0.8 to version 2.0! (kudos to anyone who gets the reference)

Changes in the new version:
version 2.0:

• Island generator switched to voxelmanip, increasing speed dramatically
• Lake generator switched to highlandpools mod to create more natural bodies of water
• Lakes can now be water, lava, or ice-topped with water underneath
• Volcanic biome now generates two brand new nodes, cinder and cinder_block
• Moreblocks and moreores support expanded
• Ore generation now occurs in clusters, making it much more like the surface world
• More kinds of surface flora
• Volcanic biomes have perpetual fires dotted about that can be put our like regular fire

Hope everyone enjoys using this new version. If anyone spots any bugs, let me know and I'll try to fix them. Also, if anyone tries to make a better cinder texture, let me know so I can potentially replace the current one. (Kinda looks a little too much like netherrack....)

Suggestions are also welcome!

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Alright! After helping develop Moontest for a while, I took advantage of a slow period in that project's development to further skylands, and so I bring to you Version 2.5!

Changes in Version 2.5:

• Biome engine moved to humidity/temperature
• Watershed biomes added
• Wheat Field biome added
• Other tweaks under the hood

A humidity-temperature based biome system has now been implemented, using the same engine from paramat's watershed mod. Additionally, it has all the biomes from watershed: taiga, tundra, snowy plains, grasslands, drylands, deciduous forests, savanna, rainforests, and desert. My original volcanic biomes are still generated independently, so they can appear anywhere, although I intend to change this in the future. I still haven't worked out the details on "how" to determine the criteria for their creation, but I'm working on it. Also, I edited the dry grass and icy dirt textures from watershed to have a more "classic" look that is in keeping with the base game. Finally, I have also included Jordach's wheat field biome from Big Freaking Dig! Look for it near deciduous forests and grassy plains.

Where will skylands go next with development? In my next update, I plan to include a few new ores, such as silicon from mesecons provided that mod is installed. Also, I'm gonna add a whole new ore that will explain the "why" and "how" of the floating islands' existence. For those who want to know ahead of time, it's a fictional metal from one of H. G. Well's books. ;)

Enjoy, and be sure to look at the new batch of screenshots in the OP.
(Note: I realize I forgot to create a legacy branch for 2.0.... I'll see if I can get one made this coming week...)

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Alright! Some of you on IRC earlier potentially caught some of the screenshots I was posting of the development of this release, but now it's official: Version 3.0 is complete!



Thanks to paramat's help with my tempidity mod (which should have a new update soon), I understand a lot more about perlin noise now. Consequently, I was able to greatly alter several aspects of skylands' island terrain generator! Larger hills, bigger caves, more interesting landscapes: just a few of the effects caused by my tweaking the parameters in the code. Volcanic biomes are also less buggy than before.

Two weeks ago I promised to add something to explain the floating nature of the skylands... And I have delivered! A new ore has been added: Cavorite. The same cavorite from H. G. Wells' story The First Men in the Moon, this ore is "opaque to gravity," that is, it makes everything above it immune to gravity. While no practical use of the ore has been added yet, expect a variety of interesting uses for it in future updates, including tool upgrading and maybe even an alternative method of air travel. ;)

The OP has also been updated with these changes as well as 3 more screenshots. Now for the official changelog...
version 3.0:

• Huge code cleanup and modular design with code split up between several .lua files
• Island structure has undergone a large makeover, and now uses noisier noise to create much more varied landscapes and land formations
• Caves are now up to twice the size that they were in previous versions
• Cavorite and Silicon added as ores. Cavorite implementation is incomplete
• Fixed a few bugs involving volcanic biomes

[paramat]

The new terrain (3rd screenshot in the first post) looks good, i looked at your new code and noticed the persistence of 0.67 and the larger vertical scales. The problem with floatindev mod, indev mapgen core floatlands and flolands mod is they all share a mapgen method that limits a floatland layer to 1 chunk layer and often slices off the tops of hills, i noticed this in skylands 0.2.0. This forces a rather flat terrain which therefore doesn't develop much character.
Last night i realised each layer does not need to be limited in size, and it's an easy edit too:

Remove these lines:

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   local chulay = math.floor((minp.y + 32) / 80) -- chunk layer number, 0 = surface chunk
   if math.fmod(chulay, CHUINT) ~= 0 then -- if chulay / CHUINT has a remainder
      return
   end

Replace with these lines:

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   local chulay = math.floor((minp.y + 32) / 80) -- chunk layer number, 0 = surface chunk
   local tercen = (math.floor(chulay / CHUINT) * CHUINT + CHUINT / 2) * 80 - 32 -- terrain centre of this layer

Edit this line to this:

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            local flomid = tercen + nvals_wave[nixyz] * WAVAMP -- y of floatland middle

Also with thicker floatlands you need a larger spacing between floatland layers, i recommend 4 chunks to start with:

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local CHUINT = 4 -- Chunk interval for floatland layers

Now the floatland layers should be unlimited in vertical scale, i recommend increasing some noise 'spread' parameters to suit the larger scale, in my experiments i'm using a squashed 3D noise, the y spread is half the horizontal spread, creates flattened structures and shapes:

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-- 3D noise for floatlands

local np_float = {
   offset = 0,
   scale = 1,
   spread = {x=384, y=192, z=384},
   seed = 277777979,
   octaves = 5,
   persist = 0.67
}

I'm busy with other stuff and more interested in 3D noise floatlands (fracture mod) so perhaps i can leave it to you to tune and develop this new unlimited version.
I really like the use of obsidian, and the addition of pools, that highlandpools mod sometimes takes up to 30 seconds per chunk, it's slower than the mapgen.

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Thanks for the help! I saw some of those sliced hills myself yesterday, but hadn't gotten around to solving the issue. One thing I will point out, however, is in the line

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            local flomid = tercen + nvals_wave[nixyz] * WAVAMP -- y of floatland middle

nixyz should be nixz. When I plugged in the fixes, I kept getting "attempt to perform arithmetic on nil value" errors, leading me to cross-reference the new and old code, finding the error. Very easy to miss :P

In any case, I'm still working out a few bugs, but so far so good. I definitely have to space out the islands more, since hills get sliced when two islands are too close together, it seems. I'm surprised to hear about the 30 seconds per chunk with highlandpools... on a lower-midrange laptop, the longest I've had for loading a chunk is a little over a second, and on a workhorse, it rarely goes over 700 ms, with an average of 89 ms.

[paramat]

Yes nixz :) that error is because in my own code i have changed the wave noise to 3D noise, the 2D noise makes the wave shape identical on each level, which i don't like visually. Also the cavegen is embarrasingly bad, these days i would use math.abs(3D noise) < TFIS for fissures. Yes when 2 layers extend too far towards each other they do get chopped and that's unavoidable, so you might want to use an 8 chunk separation (CHUINT). A persistence of 0.67 tends to create extra floatlands above and below the main surface, making level-to-level travel easier.

[paramat]

Another tip, HISCAL and LOSCAL are the 'theoretical' vertical scales, the terrain will extend much further, i'm trying SCALs of 128 and getting structures extending 250 nodes from 'flomid'.
I'm also trying exponents (HIEXP. LOEXP) of 0.33, creates flatter, wider flanges around the floatland, with spikier mountains.

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Thank you again for the help! That's almost exactly how I wanted them to eventually look: epic like fracture, but still distinctly island-like. I'll have GitHub and the OP updated with the new changes within the next few minutes. Also, I'll be porting the changes to Sky-Test within the next few days as well. (I might also change the name considering that 1. I only meant it to be temporary and 2. someone made a new mod called 'skytest')

EPIC:

[Kilarin]

Holey Toledo! Just upgraded xubuntu and now I can run other games besides minetest_game for the first time. I've got some strange problem that keeps me form using the helicopter, but I just granted myself fly and started exploring in skylands and... Oh... my... WORD!!!!!

THIS is what minetest was meant to be! you go up and up and up and you just keep finding more floating islands and more and more. WOW.

Now, if you combined this with the underground realms, I would be the happiest guy on the forums!

I haven't actually PLAYED very much yet, just some exploring. But if I were going to make any suggestions, I think it would be a request for some floating islands to be larger in scale. Both thicker and wider. A floating island a few hundred blocks from top to bottom and up to even a thousand wide would make an impressive sight! But perhaps I would change my mind after some more playtime.

Anyway, AWESOME!!!!!

[edit] I take back the width thing. I was mistaking the edge of what was loaded for the edge of the islands. these things are HUGE! I love it![/edit]

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Glad you like it so much! I myself am not sure what causes the problems with the helicopters, it hasn't happened to me at all... yet. Something on my to-do list to examine and hopefully improve...

I wonder, are you playing the version of skylands found in SkyTest? If so, those are outdated, I've been terrible about updating SkyTest. Using the new version here, islands can and will end up being hundreds of blocks tall in some places, with liberal outcroppings of lowlands.

Now, if you combined this with the underground realms, I would be the happiest guy on the forums!

I can't say I haven't toyed with this idea. ;) However, I think I'll wait until I have a surface world mod to complete the trio until I make something like that.

[Kilarin]

are you playing the version of skylands found in SkyTest?

Sure enough, I DID download the old skytest version. I just downloaded the skylands version and will restart with that.

I'm not planning on using the helicopter anyway. I added my bridgetool mod, and am playing "austere", no flying allowed. I've got to build bridges to every island I want to visit. And I'm having crazy fun. Will be even better with the updated version I'm certain!

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Pushed a new update, a beta version for SkyLands 4.0. In this version, the lake generator was majorly overhauled, nearly rewritten. Much more efficient now, it no longer performs a search for the surface of the islands, but rather generates a table of positions on the surface of the island (Furthermore, only those in biomes where lakes will occur), and then loops through them after the terrain is generated, seeing if any of them are in a basin that can hold water/lava/ice. It's a beta version because I'm sure there are some bugs in the new method I haven't discovered. ;)

Also, I added another new biome: Sandstone biomes!

These have lots of sand as well as sandstone underneath the sand, thus providing the first naturally harvestable sandstone in the game (as far as I know).

Finally, I laid the groundwork for the creation of Heaven Islands. They aren't complete yet, so they won't appear during normal play, but expect them to be added very soon. Once I get those in, I will update SkyTest with the new update.

Til then, enjoy!

[HeroOfTheWinds]

Version 4.0 is now out!



The Heaven biome, complete with Parthenon-esque buildings, golden trees and apples, healing springs, and columns of quartz, is now fully implemented! Rich grass upon rich soil is all around, and white stone along with white cobble and white stone bricks makes up the strata of the islands. Furthermore, the buildings and columns are made of quartz and [craftable] quartz pillars. Stand in the healing springs to recover 4 hearts worth of health every 20 seconds. (Or until you're ready to say "I'm finished!")

I also made a couple more changes, most notably that those ugly stacks of dirt_with_grass style nodes will correct themselves over time to have only grass at the top of the column. Stairs were also added, coming in varieties of white stone, white cobble, white stone bricks, quartz, quartz pillars, acacia wood, pine wood, and cinder blocks.

I should be bringing these changes over to SkyTest sometime within the next week, as well as changes to the included mods to have wider and more comprehensive support of the unique elements that SkyLands brings to the table.