[Mod] Australia 0.4

[azekill_DIABLO]

on start on the game when i click play and you see all the active mods

[Inocudom]

Look at these, demon_boy:
https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14470
https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2631
You might find the plants of these two mods to be very good editions to your biomes.

[wilkgr76]

Look at these, demon_boy:
https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14470
https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2631
You might find the plants of these two mods to be very good editions to your biomes.

The 2nd one has duplicates of the builtin flowers, but then again, that's probably where the builtin ones came from.

[pause]

HOLY COW, that's 4 years old... Anyone care for a bump?

[Zeno]

ok i will do that :)

EDIT: the error (occurs only when australia is active)
[code] >> === FATAL ERROR ===
>> Access violation (Exception 0xC0000005) at 0x00578902
>> Saved dump to C:\Games\Minetest\bin\..\minetest.dmp

When does this occur (intermittently?, every 5 minutes?, when the game loads?)

Cheers

[azekill_DIABLO]

i click on play and the game close brutally....

[demon_boy]

Version 0.3.1

• Changed ore distribution to use minetest.register_ore function.
• Added uranium in two biomes if technic_worldgen mod is enabled.
• Added 4 new corals to the Great Barrier Reef biome.
• Added Brown and Giant Kelp to some ocean biomes.
• Changed muddy river water opacity. It's now much harder to see underwater in these rivers.
• Removed necessity to use voxel manipulator, voxel.lua file.
• Fixed noairblocks.
• Fixed a naming issue with some fern textures, credit: Napiophelios.

Muddy rivers are now much harder to navigate whilst swimming underwater. Visibility is poor.

I've removed the need for the voxel manipulator to place extra ores. The mod is now using the minetest.register_ore function to place extra ores in some biomes. This makes it harder to find those ores, but there are good amounts of extra gold, copper, iron and coal in some biomes. If you have technic mod enabled, there is added Uranium in two biomes.

Some new coral in the Great Barrier Reef using the Sea modpack way of distributing coral with ore/ABM combo. More coral coming.

Same applies for kelp and the giant kelp forests in the Tasman Sea biome.

+ Giant Kelp forest

Giant Kelp forest in the Tasman Sea.

[Sokomine]

Very nice biomes! Apart from the decorative red dirt, there's also a multitude of nice plants and new tree types.

I wonder what kind of villages might be found there :-) After all medieval villages wouldn't fit in.

There are also some minor problems: The boab tree has one trunk floating over it, and some textures (especially those of wood and trees) have their borders very visible when more than one node connects to another one of the same type.

But all in all, it looks like a very very nice landscape. I love the plants!

[demon_boy]

Very nice biomes! Apart from the decorative red dirt, there's also a multitude of nice plants and new tree types.

I wonder what kind of villages might be found there :-) After all medieval villages wouldn't fit in.

There are also some minor problems: The boab tree has one trunk floating over it, and some textures (especially those of wood and trees) have their borders very visible when more than one node connects to another one of the same type.

But all in all, it looks like a very very nice landscape. I love the plants!

The quintessential "village" in the outback would be the pub. And only a pub.
Example one and two.
If you wanted to add another building to make a "village" a general store with petrol pump (gas) and post office. Google Outback general store for inspiration.

If you need help creating a village for the Australia mod, ping me.

Most of the trees need some tweaking. The Boab and a few others have the floating trunk. And the textures are on the todo list. I'll be working on them for the next release.

[demon_boy]

Version 0.4

• Added new corals and sea grass.
• Replaced coral sand with coral stone.
• Added sunken woodships and submarines with variable "loot".
• Fixed an issue with the rainforest tree schematic causing Minetest 0.4.14 to crash on startup.

New release to fix the issue on startup with Minetest 0.4.14

I anticipate the next release in a couple of weeks with a lot of the textures fixed up.

[Gundul]

Great job. I love it. I could spend hours just flying through the newly generated landscape :)

Landscape and constellation of vegetation is very nice. What I would suggest is to change
the arrangement of leaves of the trees. They look too even and very much the same. In my
opinion a generation of leaves like in moretrees mod looks more realistic.

Can't wait until next update. This is a great place for survival games.

[burli]

There is always a piece of wood on top of the trees

[demon_boy]

I've been working on the mod and for the next release the textures for wood and trunks have been cleaned up. Also expect some new plants.

But the real improvement will be with the trees. I'm mixing up Gael-de-Sailly and Duaner's code to get a good variation of shape/size and the real plus is I've got distribution of plants/trees along rivers working. See a preview here of river red gum and coolabah trees along rivers in the Murray-Darling biome.



Still a few things to iron out, but release will probably be in two weeks.

[necron099]

Great work demon_boy, very nice variety of biomes, trees, and vegetation. No macadamia nuts yet? :)

Idea: this mod + streets + cars = Bathurst!

Keep up the good work.

[Sokomine]

The quintessential "village" in the outback would be the pub. And only a pub.
Example one and two.

Indeed, quite a lot of lone pubs :-) Where do all the customers come from?

If you wanted to add another building to make a "village" a general store with petrol pump (gas) and post office. Google Outback general store for inspiration.

If you need help creating a village for the Australia mod, ping me.

I've never been to Australia. If you could provide some suitable buildings, mg_villages could place them on the map.

[demon_boy]

Indeed, quite a lot of lone pubs :-) Where do all the customers come from?

You'd be surprised how far an Australian will travel to have a beer ;)

I've never been to Australia. If you could provide some suitable buildings, mg_villages could place them on the map.

Is there any preferred format? mts schematic from WorldEdit?

I can work on a few buildings, but I'm kind of snowed under with all the biome/tree/plant work I'm doing. It may be a month or two before I get to it.

[azekill_DIABLO]

yep, mts

[Sokomine]

Is there any preferred format? mts schematic from WorldEdit?

Yes, mts is the right format. .we can also be read, although .mts is preferable. My handle_schematics mod can be used to store these files. It's easier than WorldEdit as it saves the files with the right filename additions (depth of building plus orientation).

I can work on a few buildings, but I'm kind of snowed under with all the biome/tree/plant work I'm doing. It may be a month or two before I get to it.

Don't worry! Biomes are a very good thing to have. I'm looking forward to the new version. And sadly I don't have too much time either.

[Wuzzy]

Wow, this mod add quite a lot to explore. Especially so many biomes. Not many mods add such a large number of biomes. It will take a lot of time to explore everything. That alone makes this mod good.
Anyway, good work so far! :-)
I like mods like this.

This mod is obviously still in WIP and has some rough edges, but the current state of the mod is already pretty nice.
I think this mod could even become part of something much bigger, namely, a full-blown Australia-themed subgame.

Tips to players:
- Do NOT just load this mod and instantly go into fly and fast mode, no matter how tempting. You will just ruin your exploration experience, and this mod has many different biomes to offer. Just when you thought you expored everything, a new biome comes along. :D
- For a better terrain, I suggest to set mgvalleys_np_terrain_height to this value:

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

Code: Select all

-10, 100, (1024, 1024, 1024), 1234, 2, 0.7, 2.0


It will make terrain much more widespread than default. The default value is too steep for my taste.

- It might also give interesting result if you lower water_level a bit




Some notes about this mod:

Bugs:
- Bug: All those Trioda longiceps quickly degrade into dry shrubs on the desert sand. Hint: In Minetest Game, there is an ABM which turns nodes in the group “flora” to dry shrubs when they are on desert sand. Maybe just remove this plant from flora. Problem: This also disables spreading. Solution: You might add your own spreading routine for this and similar plants
- Leafdecay is not enabled for all leaves
- Mangrove fern nodes look nice at the beginning, until you dig them or look from them above. Then they look very very wrong. I think you might consider using a different drawtype here.

Gameplay:
- Tree trunks should totally have variation in digging times, both based on thickness and wood type. Maybe with a few trees not diggable by hand. I think this is OK for gameplay since many biomes have thin tree trunks as well, and those could always be diggable by hand
- Thin tree trunks should yield less wood than the full thick ones
- Also, burning time in furnace might vary (if the tree trunks are usable at fuel at all)
- The mud should have higher viscosity to make it much harder to wade through
- Make sure the small plants like moss are buildable_to. If this is not set, you will build OVER these plants, which feels odd and inconsistent with e.g. grass.
- I suggest to make mangrove mud sticky (add disable_jump group). It would add a nice gameplay effect. :-)

Content:
- I suggest to add walls (using the walls mod) for each of the new cobblestones
- I suggest to add red sandstone

Organization:
- First of all, I think this mod could become a great building block for many other mods (not neccessarily written by you) to come. This is because it adds a massive amount of plants and a few new nodes. I could maybe think of an “Australian Survival” mod or something. ;-)
- I think many of the leaves textures need a rework. They look a bit to chaotic and some of them have a bit too much transparency that they look like they float in the air :-/
- I would try to eventually get rid of the default grass and dry grass and replace them with something more specific. You seem to add many very spefic plants (even with scientific name), and the default grass just doesn't seem to fit in. Unless you actually wanted to keep the grass simple, of course.
- Try to keep any dependencies optional, if possible. Use minetest.get_modpath("modname") to check at runtime if a mod is loaded. Using this trick, you could (for example) easily make the bucket dependency optional
- You have a pretty long todo list. For future, I suggest to keep your australia stuff modular. Only keep direct mapgen/biome-related stuff in this mod. If you want to add more complex stuff like mobs, I think it will be more flexible to put them into a seperate mod. That way, it will be much easier to integrate the mods into actual subgames. I am also not sure if it is a good idea to add both surface and ore mapgen into the same mod. This will prevent subgame authors from combining ore generators and australia at will. But if you restrict ore generation only close to the surface in this mod, it might be ok.

[demon_boy]

Wow, this mod add quite a lot to explore. Especially so many biomes. Not many mods add such a large number of biomes. It will take a lot of time to explore everything. That alone makes this mod good.
Anyway, good work so far! :-)
I like mods like this.

This mod is obviously still in WIP and has some rough edges, but the current state of the mod is already pretty nice.
I think this mod could even become part of something much bigger, namely, a full-blown Australia-themed subgame.

Thanks for the comprehensive review. The first release of this mod was a bit rushed in the end, hence the bad textures for some of the trees and missing content particularly in the crafting side of the mod.
It is a WIP and I've been doing a lot of work in the last few months mostly around creating a subgame. The "perfectionist" bug has hit me and I'm struggling to get things I'm happy with. I've refactored some sections a few too many times. I'll release what I've got soon and see where it goes.

Tips to players:
- Do NOT just load this mod and instantly go into fly and fast mode, no matter how tempting. You will just ruin your exploration experience, and this mod has many different biomes to offer. Just when you thought you expored everything, a new biome comes along. :D
- For a better terrain, I suggest to set mgvalleys_np_terrain_height to this value:

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

Code: Select all

-10, 100, (1024, 1024, 1024), 1234, 2, 0.7, 2.0


It will make terrain much more widespread than default. The default value is too steep for my taste.

I checked your settings but I find the scale and spread Y value to create mountains that are just too high. Australia has very little Alpine regions (snow).

Here is my full mapgen settings that I'll be including in the subgame:

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

Code: Select all

mg_biome_np_heat = 50, 50, (1000, 1000, 1000), 5349, 3, 0.5, 2.0
mg_biome_np_humidity = 50, 50, (1000, 1000, 1000), 842, 3, 0.5, 2.0

mgvalleys_river_depth = 5
mgvalleys_river_size = 4

mgvalleys_np_rivers = 0, 1, (512, 384, 512), -6050, 3, 0.5, 2.0
mgvalleys_np_terrain_height = -10, 50, (1024, 512, 1024), 5202, 6, 0.4, 2.0
mgvalleys_np_valley_depth = 6, 4, (1024, 512, 1024), -1914, 2, 1.0, 2.0
mgvalleys_np_inter_valley_fill = 0, 1, (512, 256, 512), 1993, 6, 0.8, 2.0
mgvalleys_np_valley_profile = 0.5, 0.3, (512, 512, 512), 777, 1, 1.0, 2.0
mgvalleys_np_inter_valley_slope = 0, 1, (256, 256, 256), 746, 3, 0.5, 2.0

Try those values and let me know what you think.

- It might also give interesting result if you lower water_level a bit

I think this could work if I created a seperate survival-based game set in remote Central Australia and wanted to remove sea-water/oceans.

Some notes about this mod:

Bugs:
- Bug: All those Trioda longiceps quickly degrade into dry shrubs on the desert sand. Hint: In Minetest Game, there is an ABM which turns nodes in the group “flora” to dry shrubs when they are on desert sand. Maybe just remove this plant from flora. Problem: This also disables spreading. Solution: You might add your own spreading routine for this and similar plants
- Leafdecay is not enabled for all leaves
- Mangrove fern nodes look nice at the beginning, until you dig them or look from them above. Then they look very very wrong. I think you might consider using a different drawtype here.

-The new release I'll address the desert sand / flora issue. Thanks for pointing that out.
-I've fixed up leaf decay, but I find it's now too aggressive on some of the larger trees, especially the Moreton Bay Fig. After a minute or so it's culled half the tree and fruit nodes have dropped everywhere. Still needs fixing.
-What do you mean Mangrove Ferns look wrong from above? Don't all plantlike nodes look like an X from above and hence a bit wrong?

Gameplay:
- Tree trunks should totally have variation in digging times, both based on thickness and wood type. Maybe with a few trees not diggable by hand. I think this is OK for gameplay since many biomes have thin tree trunks as well, and those could always be diggable by hand
- Thin tree trunks should yield less wood than the full thick ones
- Also, burning time in furnace might vary (if the tree trunks are usable at fuel at all)
- The mud should have higher viscosity to make it much harder to wade through
- Make sure the small plants like moss are buildable_to. If this is not set, you will build OVER these plants, which feels odd and inconsistent with e.g. grass.
- I suggest to make mangrove mud sticky (add disable_jump group). It would add a nice gameplay effect. :-)

- The new release will drop sticks instead of wood for a lot of the smaller trees. I like the idea of making some of the trees not diggable by hand. Yeah, it's insane you could chop a 2-metre wide eucalypt with your bare hands. I'll work on that. Great suggestion. It's finding the balance right to make tool making not too hard for a new spawn player and an element of realism.
- Your mud suggestions are great and I'll certainly include them. It will work great with a Crocodile mob. In reality, chances of escaping death when faced with a Saltwater Crocodile are nearly zero.
- I'll fix the moss. I've already changed to a modpack to include the original trunks mod with my modifications.
- Disabling jump is a great idea in the mangrove.

Content:
- I suggest to add walls (using the walls mod) for each of the new cobblestones
- I suggest to add red sandstone

Both good suggestions. Will add them in.

Organization:
- First of all, I think this mod could become a great building block for many other mods (not neccessarily written by you) to come. This is because it adds a massive amount of plants and a few new nodes. I could maybe think of an “Australian Survival” mod or something. ;-)
- I think many of the leaves textures need a rework. They look a bit to chaotic and some of them have a bit too much transparency that they look like they float in the air :-/
- I would try to eventually get rid of the default grass and dry grass and replace them with something more specific. You seem to add many very spefic plants (even with scientific name), and the default grass just doesn't seem to fit in. Unless you actually wanted to keep the grass simple, of course.
- Try to keep any dependencies optional, if possible. Use minetest.get_modpath("modname") to check at runtime if a mod is loaded. Using this trick, you could (for example) easily make the bucket dependency optional
- You have a pretty long todo list. For future, I suggest to keep your australia stuff modular. Only keep direct mapgen/biome-related stuff in this mod. If you want to add more complex stuff like mobs, I think it will be more flexible to put them into a seperate mod. That way, it will be much easier to integrate the mods into actual subgames. I am also not sure if it is a good idea to add both surface and ore mapgen into the same mod. This will prevent subgame authors from combining ore generators and australia at will. But if you restrict ore generation only close to the surface in this mod, it might be ok.

- A survival game is not my specialty. But there is definitely room to add this.
- I've reworked a number of the tree textures. Not so much the leaves. I find them really hard to get right. The native Cherry is one that is really bad for sure.
- Grass was kept simple. It's difficult to add different grass nodes that don't just end up looking the same. I have got Mitchell Grass which grazing animals like sheep feed on in the outback of Australia.
- Points noted about modularity and dependencies. It would certainly help if someone wants to hack it into a survival game without too much extra effort.
- I am creating a new "ores" mod for this mod, but not dependant on this mod.

Thanks again for your feedback, it really is appreciated.

[Wuzzy]

I just tried out your latest version of the Outback subgame, and it's a great improvement!

Reply:

- A survival game is not my specialty. But there is definitely room to add this.

You don't have to. I am just saying that this mod could be used by anybody to do cool stuff. :-)

Here is my full mapgen settings that I'll be including in the subgame:

Gives good result for a lot of regions. But some of the hills can be very steep and long. If rivers appear there, it looks even weirder. Sorry, no coordinates and seed for you, I may post one if I find such a hill again.

But it's better than my settings. My mapgen settings were just a quick and dirty first try.

-I've fixed up leaf decay, but I find it's now too aggressive on some of the larger trees, especially the Moreton Bay Fig. After a minute or so it's culled half the tree and fruit nodes have dropped everywhere. Still needs fixing.

Many Minetest Game things are documented in game_api.txt. Look for “leafdecay”.

- The new release will drop sticks instead of wood for a lot of the smaller trees. I like the idea of making some of the trees not diggable by hand. Yeah, it's insane you could chop a 2-metre wide eucalypt with your bare hands. I'll work on that. Great suggestion. It's finding the balance right to make tool making not too hard for a new spawn player and an element of realism.

It's not really about realism but variety. It's IMO a shame to have so many trees if they are all kinda the same in gameplay.
I think only the thinnest trees should give sticks right away. Middle-thick tree trunks could be crafted to wood like normal trunks, just less than 4 at once. :-)

Also: You can also try to tweak balancing by changing some of the crafting recipes or thinking of new ones.
Don't be afraid to break compability here and there. Your Outback subgame is already pretty different from Minetest Game as it excludes particular plants (which is good!).
I think it might also be good to break with some of the Minetest Game conventions to create something new.

- Grass was kept simple. It's difficult to add different grass nodes that don't just end up looking the same. I have got Mitchell Grass which grazing animals like sheep feed on in the outback of Australia.

OK, I can kinda understand this.


Some generic remarks: For your upcoming Outback subgame, I think it will be totally OK to break with Minetest Game conventions. Some of the Minetest Game stuff won't even make sense there, like the awfully generic Tree (default:tree) or the 6 flowers.
I agree, making grass is probably hard and maybe a bit overcomplex.

Maybe a simpler way would be to simply add new dirt-with-grass nodes. I think this will be a simple way to add to the variety of the mod/subgame, especially with those many biomes. It will also make it easier to create smooth biome transitions. I suggest to add at least a dirt-with-grass which goes between the dry grass and the normal grass (in color). I feel the transition between dirt-with-grass and dirt-with-dry-grass is pretty "hard".

I think you might also have some ideas for that. :-)

Oh, I noticed that in snowy regions, you don't use dirt with snow but dirt with grass instead. This should be fixed. Unless you want to remove the snow later, of course.

[demon_boy]

Gives good result for a lot of regions. But some of the hills can be very steep and long. If rivers appear there, it looks even weirder. Sorry, no coordinates and seed for you, I may post one if I find such a hill again.

But it's better than my settings. My mapgen settings were just a quick and dirty first try.

I've spent so much time on this. My aim was to create vast flat areas with rolling hills and mountains with a maximum height of around 225.

Some mountains can get a bit weird at the top, with the occasional floatland (a pet hate of mine). But the noise there creates ridges and bluffs that I think add some gameplay in making some mountains difficult to navigate.

I actually have a really good idea for a separate subgame that involves purely that... mountaineering.

It's a balancing act: rivers that are wide enough, land that is flat like australia, but still has some hills and mountains. But not too high or 'alp-like'. Australia has an alpine region, but by name only. It's not alps like in Europe, Asia or the Americas.

Some generic remarks: For your upcoming Outback subgame, I think it will be totally OK to break with Minetest Game conventions. Some of the Minetest Game stuff won't even make sense there, like the awfully generic Tree (default:tree) or the 6 flowers.
I agree, making grass is probably hard and maybe a bit overcomplex.

For the moment I've kept the default game nodes in, but not using them. My reasoning is that those items could be found in a sunken boat and used by the player. Think of all the species of flora that are introduced by settlers.

Maybe a simpler way would be to simply add new dirt-with-grass nodes. I think this will be a simple way to add to the variety of the mod/subgame, especially with those many biomes. It will also make it easier to create smooth biome transitions. I suggest to add at least a dirt-with-grass which goes between the dry grass and the normal grass (in color). I feel the transition between dirt-with-grass and dirt-with-dry-grass is pretty "hard".

I agree that transition is hard. I can see a use for a dirt-with-dryish-greenish-grass but how to blend that between two biomes? I don't want to create more biomes. I originally had planned about six more, but it was getting difficult to make each one unique.

Perhaps using the voxelmanipulator to find the biome transition area and place the new grass between the two. The same would be good between river and muddy water.

Oh, I noticed that in snowy regions, you don't use dirt with snow but dirt with grass instead. This should be fixed. Unless you want to remove the snow later, of course.

That was intentional. There is still an alpine biome with dirt-with-snow and snowblock. But, I also used the Victoria, Tasmania and Eastern Coasts biomes to have snow dotted on grass from y=140+ to have a transition to the alps. Sometimes the mountains don't get high/cold enough so you just have some patchy snow.

[Wuzzy]

I agree that transition is hard. I can see a use for a dirt-with-dryish-greenish-grass but how to blend that between two biomes? I don't want to create more biomes. I originally had planned about six more, but it was getting difficult to make each one unique.

Well, I thought of more using this new grass in some of the existing biomes. And the biomes are arranged in a way that dirt-with-grass appears (usually) only next to dirt-with-dryish-greenish-grass and dirt-with-dry-grass appears only next to dirt-with-dryish-greenish-grass. So that dirt-with-grass and dirt-with-dry-grass does not (usually) appear next to each other.
Would that idea work?

For the moment I've kept the default game nodes in, but not using them. My reasoning is that those items could be found in a sunken boat and used by the player. Think of all the species of flora that are introduced by settlers.

Hey, this is actually quite clever! :-)

[demon_boy]

I agree that transition is hard. I can see a use for a dirt-with-dryish-greenish-grass but how to blend that between two biomes? I don't want to create more biomes. I originally had planned about six more, but it was getting difficult to make each one unique.

Well, I thought of more using this new grass in some of the existing biomes. And the biomes are arranged in a way that dirt-with-grass appears (usually) only next to dirt-with-dryish-greenish-grass and dirt-with-dry-grass appears only next to dirt-with-dryish-greenish-grass. So that dirt-with-grass and dirt-with-dry-grass does not (usually) appear next to each other.
Would that idea work?

The idea works, but implementation is could be difficult. The Biome API doesn't support this.

I think one way might be to find where one or both of the biome blend noises (mg_biome_np_heat_blend and mg_biome_np_humidity_blend) are and change the top node using VoxelManipulator.

Or do we use an ABM to look for dirt_with_grass and dirt_with_dry_grass adjacent to each other and replace them both with dirt-with-dryish-greenish-grass.

Thanking about it the red nodes (sand, gravel and dirt) could all use a blend node to dirt_with_dry_grass. Reddish_dirt_with_patchy_grass?

Also, where grass and trees are placed along rivers, you can change the top node there using VM to get a real riparian feel.

[Wuzzy]

Oh boy. It looks like it is harder than I thought. :-(

[demon_boy]

Actually, I think the ABM method could be simple based on the existing grass spread function in default mod. Either edit this ABM or create a new one.

But will it pass the "does it look pleasing to the eye" test?

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

Code: Select all

--
-- Convert dirt to something that fits the environment
--

minetest.register_abm({
   nodenames = {"default:dirt"},
   neighbors = {
      "default:dirt_with_grass",
      "default:dirt_with_dry_grass",
      "default:dirt_with_snow",
      "group:grass",
      "group:dry_grass",
      "default:snow",
   },
   interval = 6,
   chance = 67,
   catch_up = false,
   action = function(pos, node)
      -- Most likely case, half the time it's too dark for this.
      local above = {x = pos.x, y = pos.y + 1, z = pos.z}
      if (minetest.get_node_light(above) or 0) < 13 then
         return
      end

      -- Look for likely neighbors.
      local p2 = minetest.find_node_near(pos, 1, {"default:dirt_with_grass",
            "default:dirt_with_dry_grass", "default:dirt_with_snow"})
      if p2 then
         -- But the node needs to be under air in this case.
         local n2 = minetest.get_node(above)
         if n2 and n2.name == "air" then
            local n3 = minetest.get_node(p2)
            minetest.set_node(pos, {name = n3.name})
            return
         end
      end

      -- Anything on top?
      local n2 = minetest.get_node(above)
      if not n2 then
         return
      end

      local name = n2.name
      -- Snow check is cheapest, so comes first.
      if name == "default:snow" then
         minetest.set_node(pos, {name = "default:dirt_with_snow"})
      -- Most likely case first.
      elseif minetest.get_item_group(name, "grass") ~= 0 then
         minetest.set_node(pos, {name = "default:dirt_with_grass"})
      elseif minetest.get_item_group(name, "dry_grass") ~= 0 then
         minetest.set_node(pos, {name = "default:dirt_with_dry_grass"})
      end
   end
})