[Mod][Merged] Valleys Mapgen [valleys_mapgen]

[Nathan.S]

Thanks sofar, I'll take a look into that.

[duane]

Flowers seem to be very rare in my worlds with this mapgen, I looked at the code for the flowers and it looks like they are being placed as mgv6 decorations. I know very little about mapgen, is there a version of mgv7 decorations that I can change/add to the code so I'll get flowers back?

Decorations (including flowers and trees) are placed by valleys_mapgen/mapgen.lua or valleys_mapgen/plants*.lua in the all lua versions of Valleys. In the C++, they're placed by the default game's flowers mod unless you use the valleys_c or valleys_mapgen for C++ mod, in which case they're placed by the valleys_c/deco_plants.lua or valleys_mapgen/plants*.lua.

The default game uses decorations which depend on a perlin noise and biomes. The Valleys lua places them based on humidity, temperature, soil type, and other factors. The valleys_c mod copies the default game's v7 decoration code, for the most part, though it adds more flowers in jungles.

The default game looks at mg_params.mgname to determine what mapgen is running (which always gives "valleys" or "singlenode" depending on which [non-mod] mapgen you selected). Version 7 decorations are the default unless v6 is selected, so v6 decoration code shouldn't ever run in Valleys.

If you want to increase the flowers, you'll have to edit either valleys_c/deco_plants.lua or valleys_mapgen/plants.lua, or minetest_game/mods/flowers/mapgen.lua, if neither of those exist.

Edit: Well, of course, you could just modify the temperature, humidity, and soil noises to make conditions more favorable for flowers in any game.

[Nathan.S]

Thanks for the response Duane I think I got it. I needed a single red flower to make some dye and spent a whole Minetest day walking to find no flowers, I made a few changes and now they are a little more available.

[duane]

Only now I noticed the almost complete absence of grass (default_grass_1, default_grass_2 etc) and flowers on many big areas

So what needs to happen is plants.lua needs to have several listings placing different densities and grass lengths in all the biomes. I'd say it'll end up being 20 or so register_plant lines to fix or at least make a decent spread and variation.

Ok, I've finally had time to put your idea in and test it. It is producing more grass, but it may not be enough for some. If I change the soil parameters any more, we'll end up with grass on bare clay and sand (which happens, but I've never seen it last long). It grows longer in better soil, but I've removed it from the dry grassy nodes since that looked odd.

[paramat]

C++ version is now merged into the engine.

[cHyper]

+1 good work ...

[Xanthin]

Testing it again with default values, I like that the generated landscape doesn't look so rough like in the version I tested before.

What I've noticed now are patches where the river steps over the riverbed like here.
image riverbed
It doesn't look too bad, but causes more grass to dirt transformations then.

What I thought that will change for the final version is the single source placement of water/lava in caves (often both types close together).
image water/lava cave
Is this an intended behaviour or will it be changed in the future?

[duane]

+1 good work ...

Thank you, and thanks to everyone who helped put this together, especially Gael de Sailly and paramat.

What I've noticed now are patches where the river steps over the riverbed like here.

Unfortunately, I had to choose between that and really high banks in places where the river happens to be low. We can add another parameter for the actual water depth to make that adjustable. My concern was that people would get irritated if they fell into a river and couldn't get out immediately.

What I thought that will change for the final version is the single source placement of water/lava in caves (often both types close together). Is this an intended behaviour or will it be changed in the future?

Simple caves work that way by design. Putting in groups of sources requires another noise, ideally a 3D noise, which I was trying to avoid since speed is one of the few advantages of the C++ version, and the appeal of Valleys tends to be focused above ground. Nodes appear randomly on the floor of any cave.

I had intended to make the version 7 caves available as well, but the most efficient way to do that involves templates, and some of the people compiling had issues with those. How and where would you like to see lava/water spawn?

[duane]

The project I started to use the lua in the main Valleys Mapgen project is now merged into the "mc" branch of the main project. You can download a zip file, here.

Once you've downloaded, unzipped and renamed the directory, you can use Valleys Mapgen normally, or if you select "valleys" as your mapgen from the latest Minetest daily/source, the lua will adapt itself to plant decorations and soil types on the C++ generated landscape. This should reduce the time it takes to create a chunk of map by at least half.

The only drawback I can see is the duplication of settings required for fully lua compatibility. I'm not sure there's an easy way around that, but the extra lua settings are ignored while the C++ mapgen is in use. Also, you can't switch mapgens without creating a new world.

[Don]

Congrats on your mapgen getting added minetest. Your work is great! Thanks for everything you do.

[twoelk]

Also, you can't switch mapgens without creating a new world.

duh?

[Gael de Sailly]

C++ version is now merged into the engine.

Thank you very much !! :)
Works well, very fast (reduce the lag by 4 times).

Thank you duane for sustaining this mod :)

[Nathan.S]

I'm going to have to see if I can change my subgame to use the C++ mapgen, would love to have the speed increase, though I've never really noticed any problems with that on either of my machines.

[paramat]

The C++ version helps when travelling by boat, because there is very little lua lag which of course makes the boat misbehave.

> What I've noticed now are patches where the river steps over the riverbed like here.

I had to fine tune that in my rivergen branch (mgwatershed) so that it doesn't overflow but it is usually possible to climb out of the water, the fine tuning of the river height needs to be a float not an integer so may not be possible in mgvalleys.

[Gael de Sailly]

It seems that on dry places, the humidity is higher when climbing up. That should be the contrary.

[duane]

It seems that on dry places, the humidity is higher when climbing up. That should be the contrary.

That caused too many problems with the default game, so I had to take it out, along with the increase in humidity near the shore. I've put it back, to some extent, in the lua of the mc branch, but I've still got the part that compensates for the different soil depth handling commented out. Which version of what are you using in the screenshot?

Edit: Here's the same location with the mc branch enabled. Hopefully, it looks a bit more like you expect, and humidity would drop off slightly more with the soil depth code enabled.

Trying to juggle all the different mods (including default) is harder than I expected.

[Gael de Sailly]

Which version of what are you using in the screenshot?

Latest Minetest with core valleys mapgen, vanilla minetest_game.

[Gael de Sailly]

Snow seems to be inverted too.
(tested with core valleys mapgen + valleys_mapgen mod mc branch)

[duane]

Snow seems to be inverted too.
(tested with core valleys mapgen + valleys_mapgen mod mc branch)

It does look strange in that case. In most of the maps I've generated, the snow tends to stick to the heights. Bear in mind that we're seeing the biomes being selected by the closest temperature/humidity combination (as opposed to only temperature being used to place snow, etc.), and the noises for temperature/humidity aren't the same as in the lua. The altitude chill is used in exactly the same way.

Edit: Whoops, I was thinking default game. Let me check with the mc branch.

I'll look for any problems in the code.

Edit: Ok, here's a bigger picture of the same area. It's pretty much all snowy, but there's no actual snow blocks being placed, just snowy blocks. The snow blocks there are left over from the default biomes. I can fix that.

[Fixerol]

Is it possible to enlarge everything proportionally, to make everything 10x bigger? :) You know, when climbing 200 nodes tall mountain with forests is not thrilling enough. Don't mention 2000 nodes tall MERU that I climbed :}

P.S. I've spent whole day walking on a Valleys C++ merged into MT and it looks so awesome, I'm so happy with it :}

[duane]

I've spent whole day walking on a Valleys C++ merged into MT and it looks so awesome, I'm so happy with it :}

That's good to hear. I hope everyone enjoys it.

Is it possible to enlarge everything proportionally, to make everything 10x bigger? :) You know, when climbing 200 nodes tall mountain with forests is not thrilling enough.

Sure you can, but you'll have to use the lua version (select any mapgen other than valleys and enable the Valleys Mapgen mod). The stock spawn routine can't handle the huge terrain, and spawns you underground.

Put this in your minetest.conf file:

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#    Base ground height
vmg_noise_1 = -100, 500, (10240,10240,10240), 5202, 6, 0.4, 2

#    Valleys noise
vmg_noise_2 = 0, 1, (2560,2560,2560), -6050, 5, 0.6, 2

#    Valleys depth
vmg_noise_3 = 50, 40, (5120,5120,5120), -1914, 1, 1, 2

#    Valleys profile
vmg_noise_4 = 0.6, 0.5, (5120,5120,5120), 777, 1, 1, 2

#    Inter-valleys slopes
vmg_noise_5 = 0.5, 0.5, (1280,1280,1280), 746, 1, 1, 2

#    Inter-valleys filling
vmg_noise_6 = 0, 1, (2560,5120,2560), 1993, 6, 0.8, 2


You'll probably also want to multiply your vmg_altitude_chill, unless you really like snow. I suspect you'll have to make it larger than 900, since the altitude chill code decreases temperature logarithmically (whereas, reality decreases it linearly).

If you insist on using the C++ mapgen, here are the corresponding noises, but plan on spawning at 0,0,0 every time.

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# Base terrain height
mg_valleys_np_terrain_height = -100, 500, (10240, 10240, 10240), 5202, 6, 0.4, 2.0

# River noise -- rivers occur close to zero
#mg_valleys_np_rivers = 0, 1, (2560, 2560, 2560), -6050, 5, 0.6, 2.0

# Raises terrain to make valleys around the rivers
mg_valleys_np_valley_depth = 50, 40, (5120, 5120, 5120), -1914, 1, 1.0, 2.0

# Slope and fill work together to modify the heights
#mg_valleys_np_inter_valley_fill = 0, 1, (2560, 5120, 2560), 1993, 6, 0.8, 2.0
#mg_valleys_np_inter_valley_slope = 0.5, 0.5, (1280, 1280, 1280), 746, 1, 1.0, 2.0

# Amplifies the valleys
#mg_valleys_np_valley_profile = 0.6, 0.5, (5120, 5120, 5120), 777, 1, 1.0, 2.0


View from Mount Lookithat.

[Gael de Sailly]

You'll probably also want to multiply your vmg_altitude_chill, unless you really like snow. I suspect you'll have to make it larger than 900, since the altitude chill code decreases temperature logarithmically (whereas, reality decreases it linearly).

I know, that's not very realistic, but I wanted temperature and humidity parameters to be always positive (and don't remember why). And I love exponential functions !!!
you should change altitude_chill in the same proportions. If your terrain is 10x higher, change it from 90 to 900. Multiply also average_snow_level and average_stone_level (I don't know what are the corresponding parameters on the C++ mapgen).

[Fixerol]

Hmm, I've tried on C++ one and what is curious is that most of mountains look like big spikes, is it possible to lower the slope angle and spread them out a bit?

[Xanthin]

What I've noticed now are patches where the river steps over the riverbed like here.

Unfortunately, I had to choose between that and really high banks in places where the river happens to be low. We can add another parameter for the actual water depth to make that adjustable. My concern was that people would get irritated if they fell into a river and couldn't get out immediately.

Thanks for your reply. I was curious and used the fast flag. That seemed to solve it when I tested it with a new world but same seed and compared both. Unless this is just a coincidence, or something I don't understand without the needed knowledge. There is still here and there a sand or dirt block to step out of the water or a little stripe where the water is even with the land. That's at least enough for me. :)

What I thought that will change for the final version is the single source placement of water/lava in caves (often both types close together). Is this an intended behaviour or will it be changed in the future?

Simple caves work that way by design. Putting in groups of sources requires another noise, ideally a 3D noise, which I was trying to avoid since speed is one of the few advantages of the C++ version, and the appeal of Valleys tends to be focused above ground. Nodes appear randomly on the floor of any cave.

I had intended to make the version 7 caves available as well, but the most efficient way to do that involves templates, and some of the people compiling had issues with those. How and where would you like to see lava/water spawn?

Oh, I just had the v7 caves in mind, for the how and where, which I simply got so used to (althoug the massiv lava caves in paramat's rivergen are also cool). Of course I understand this, that speed is important, as well as usability for everyone.
And yes, the world above is impressive enough to keep you at the surface. :)

[duane]

Hmm, I've tried on C++ one and what is curious is that most of mountains look like big spikes, is it possible to lower the slope angle and spread them out a bit?

I generally like to double the range (the parenthesized numbers) of the river and valley fill noises in my maps, which makes the mountains less pointy:

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mg_valleys_np_rivers = 0, 1, (512, 512, 512), -6050, 5, 0.6, 2.0
mg_valleys_np_inter_valley_fill = 0, 1, (512, 1024, 512), 1993, 6, 0.8, 2.0


[duane]

Oh, I just had the v7 caves in mind, for the how and where, which I simply got so used to (althoug the massiv lava caves in paramat's rivergen are also cool).

I went ahead and put in a pull request to add V7 caves back to the valleys mapgen. Those who like to compile might try testing the code. It worked fine on my system for months, but there were compilation issues that may or may not have had anything to do with the template I used.

[Betta]

this mapgen is awesome i've even manage to make islands in the middle of the ocean.

+ Spoiler

+ Spoiler

+ Spoiler

[duane]

What I've noticed now are patches where the river steps over the riverbed like here.

Well, after thoroughly reviewing the code, I found a place in the original lua where a crucial comparison uses "y + 1", but the C++ code just uses "y". So the non-fast method is, in fact, generating too much water. Good work spotting that.

This is the relevant patch, in case anyone is interested.

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diff --git a/src/mapgen_valleys.cpp b/src/mapgen_valleys.cpp
index a919b8d..67f820b 100644
--- a/src/mapgen_valleys.cpp
+++ b/src/mapgen_valleys.cpp
@@ -727,7 +727,7 @@ int MapgenValleys::generateTerrain()
                                } else if (river && y < river_y) {
                                        // river
                                        vm->m_data[index_data] = n_river_water;
-                               } else if ((!fast_terrain) && (!river) && fill * slope > y - surface_y) {
+                               } else if ((!fast_terrain) && (!river) && round(fill * slope) >= y - surface_y) {
                                        // ground (slow method)
                                        vm->m_data[index_data] = n_stone;
                                        heightmap[index_2d] = surface_max_y = y;


It still overflows on occasion, but not as often when that's corrected. What bothers me is why the fast method doesn't.

Edit: Actually, it's not that simple. When you use the nofast flag (by default), the entire world is generated one node too low -- except for the rivers. It's all relative, of course, but this leaves the heightmap produced by the mapgen off by one.

[Fixerol]

Oh, I just had the v7 caves in mind, for the how and where, which I simply got so used to (althoug the massiv lava caves in paramat's rivergen are also cool).

I went ahead and put in a pull request to add V7 caves back to the valleys mapgen. Those who like to compile might try testing the code. It worked fine on my system for months, but there were compilation issues that may or may not have had anything to do with the template I used.

So there will be valleys caves (default) and V7 caves for our choosing?

[duane]

So there will be valleys caves (default) and V7 caves for our choosing?

Well, we changed it to the V5 caves, which are basically the same but don't require any template madness. However, the Valleys Mapgen default caves are not included -- they require a lot more processing time. Only the simple caves and V5 are included.

If anyone wants to try them early, the code is on github.

Edit: By the way, the river issue has been fixed in the mainline code, and should be available in daily builds soon.