Custom biomes
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 07:15Today I was thinking about Minetest biomes and all, and thought that it would be cool if there was a way to make ''custom biomes'' in LUA instead of C++. What my idea is, is like a mods folder, but called ''biomes'' and inside it you add a folder named after a biome and in that folder is an LUA script that defines the features of the biome, like below:
-Common-ness/rarity of the biome, 1 for rare and 10 for almost everywhere (and anywhere in-between)
-Size of the biome
1 for very small, 10 for massive, and anywhere in-between would be used as a ''scale'' for the size of the biome
-Landforms of the biome
Defined much like ''1 = ponds/lakes, 2 = grassy flats, 3 = hills, 4 = mountains, 5 = mesas'', etc., can have any number of features defined and each one needs a ''scale'' like 1 = very small and 10 = massive (and anywhere in-between)
-Types of blocks used
For deserts it would use ''default:desert_stone, default:desert_sand, default:cactus'', etc., for grasslands it would be ''default:dirt, default:stone, default:dirt_with_grass'', etc., and for snowlands/winter-like regions it would be ''default:dirt_with_snow, default:stone, default:dirt, default:ice'', etc., and for any custom biomes, a simple ''mod'' would be needed to register the nodes in the biome (if no defaults are present for the node) and if any things should be crafted from ''stuff'' in the biome, that would also be defined in the mod.
These nodes would be used for ''surface nodes'', ''middle nodes'', and ''ground-level nodes'' (maybe more levels in-between/below) and the nodes would be added to the map as so, to keep dirt from being in the side of a cliff with stone on the top.
-Vegetation/special nodes
some special nodes that are generated in the biome would be defined here, what ''forms'' they are usually in, and how often they occur (ex. how often cacti occur in a desert, or how often water in a winter biome is turned to ice in map generation)
If this is implemented, it would also require MapGen to be written in LUA (most likely), and it would work kinda like so:
-When a new chunk is generated, the ''chance'' of other biomes is all factored into a random biome picked, if the surrounding chunks in a biome would exceed/be close to the size defined by the biome (ex. if the chunks nearby are all grassy chunks and the percent of grass of each chunk reaches an accumulative percent of 2000, randomly choose a new biome to be spawned in the chunk)
Once it is decided to generate a new biome, the ''chance'' for every biome is factored in to a ''list'' where the chance stands for the number of ''markers'' are added to the list for that biome (ex. like a bag of blue and red marbles, chance is 8 for red and 2 for blue so red gets 8 markers in the list and blue gets 2) and one is randomly selected from the list.
Once the biome is selected, the surrounding chunks are scanned for their ''height'' and nodes are spawned at the same level in the chunk as the one on the other chunk next to it (ex. a chunk of grassland is flat, so the desert biome picked has all of the nodes on the side touching the grassland chunk at the same level as the grassland chunk, or if it is a mountain and a desert biome is picked, make the desert nodes meet the top/sides of the mountain.
The landforms of that biome are listed and some random places are selected depending on the chance of that landform, and then the size range is used to determine the size of the landform.
Finally, the nodes of each level, and the ones defined for the levels of the landmasses present are loaded, and the entire chunk is loaded.
This process may take some time to ''polish'', but it would make the game better and more modifiable, to make Minetest the most it can be for everyone.
Also, it may be better to make biomes ''cubic'' instead of smooth, so that it is easier to keep up with and not too many processings are needed to generate a biome (but if it doesn't really make it lag too much to keep biomes smooth, then it may also be nice to keep smooth-ness)
This does seem very complicated, but it is just an idea someone had while playing Minetest and thinking about making an artificial mountain because the mountains in the area aren't high enough to reach the clouds, like he would need for the city he wants to build.
-Common-ness/rarity of the biome, 1 for rare and 10 for almost everywhere (and anywhere in-between)
-Size of the biome
1 for very small, 10 for massive, and anywhere in-between would be used as a ''scale'' for the size of the biome
-Landforms of the biome
Defined much like ''1 = ponds/lakes, 2 = grassy flats, 3 = hills, 4 = mountains, 5 = mesas'', etc., can have any number of features defined and each one needs a ''scale'' like 1 = very small and 10 = massive (and anywhere in-between)
-Types of blocks used
For deserts it would use ''default:desert_stone, default:desert_sand, default:cactus'', etc., for grasslands it would be ''default:dirt, default:stone, default:dirt_with_grass'', etc., and for snowlands/winter-like regions it would be ''default:dirt_with_snow, default:stone, default:dirt, default:ice'', etc., and for any custom biomes, a simple ''mod'' would be needed to register the nodes in the biome (if no defaults are present for the node) and if any things should be crafted from ''stuff'' in the biome, that would also be defined in the mod.
These nodes would be used for ''surface nodes'', ''middle nodes'', and ''ground-level nodes'' (maybe more levels in-between/below) and the nodes would be added to the map as so, to keep dirt from being in the side of a cliff with stone on the top.
-Vegetation/special nodes
some special nodes that are generated in the biome would be defined here, what ''forms'' they are usually in, and how often they occur (ex. how often cacti occur in a desert, or how often water in a winter biome is turned to ice in map generation)
If this is implemented, it would also require MapGen to be written in LUA (most likely), and it would work kinda like so:
-When a new chunk is generated, the ''chance'' of other biomes is all factored into a random biome picked, if the surrounding chunks in a biome would exceed/be close to the size defined by the biome (ex. if the chunks nearby are all grassy chunks and the percent of grass of each chunk reaches an accumulative percent of 2000, randomly choose a new biome to be spawned in the chunk)
Once it is decided to generate a new biome, the ''chance'' for every biome is factored in to a ''list'' where the chance stands for the number of ''markers'' are added to the list for that biome (ex. like a bag of blue and red marbles, chance is 8 for red and 2 for blue so red gets 8 markers in the list and blue gets 2) and one is randomly selected from the list.
Once the biome is selected, the surrounding chunks are scanned for their ''height'' and nodes are spawned at the same level in the chunk as the one on the other chunk next to it (ex. a chunk of grassland is flat, so the desert biome picked has all of the nodes on the side touching the grassland chunk at the same level as the grassland chunk, or if it is a mountain and a desert biome is picked, make the desert nodes meet the top/sides of the mountain.
The landforms of that biome are listed and some random places are selected depending on the chance of that landform, and then the size range is used to determine the size of the landform.
Finally, the nodes of each level, and the ones defined for the levels of the landmasses present are loaded, and the entire chunk is loaded.
This process may take some time to ''polish'', but it would make the game better and more modifiable, to make Minetest the most it can be for everyone.
Also, it may be better to make biomes ''cubic'' instead of smooth, so that it is easier to keep up with and not too many processings are needed to generate a biome (but if it doesn't really make it lag too much to keep biomes smooth, then it may also be nice to keep smooth-ness)
This does seem very complicated, but it is just an idea someone had while playing Minetest and thinking about making an artificial mountain because the mountains in the area aren't high enough to reach the clouds, like he would need for the city he wants to build.