Topic: Biomes

[Superman]

I saw labeled as something Jeb posted. This would be a very cool way of doing biomes.

[Poopyhead pianoman ♫]

Is there supposed to be something attached to this?

[Superman]

Pianoman has a smartphone! Yay!

Yeah. Attachments don't show up on the mobile site. Or, at least I don't know how to view them. If you look in the upper left, I think, there's a little attachment icon. I don't think it does anything though. That or my fingers are just too fat to hit it.

[taintedpurity33]

They don't. Or pictures, avatars, signatures, stats, none of the fun stuff.

[gumstitch]

Volcano?!

[Superman]

Looking around some more, it looks like the picture is from him and the labels are fan speculation.

[Poopyhead pianoman ♫]

Is this supposed to be about a new world-generation algorithm?

[Superman]

Yeah. He actually just posted an update on it. Sounds like a great step forward.

https://mojang.com/2013/08/minecraft-world-generator-update/

[Poopyhead pianoman ♫]

There have been three main problems we have wanted to address:

Too large oceans
Too uneven/random biome placement
Not enough variation

Too large oceans? Booo... I like the large oceans! I love the idea of sailing somewhat endlessly. Although I do like the idea of adding more islands.
I will agree with uneven biome placement. It is much more natural to progress from taiga to grassland to swamp, to jungle, for example.
Variation... I dunno. The Minecraft world can get pretty big. I think variation wasn't too much of an issue.

It is exciting, though, and I think I'll be rejoining the server soon.

[Superman]

I will agree with uneven biome placement. It is much more natural to progress from taiga to grassland to swamp, to jungle, for example.

That's the part I'm most excited about. It should clean up our map a lot too. I'm pretty sure biomes change even if land generation doesn't. We can smooth out our own land formations.

[Poopyhead pianoman ♫]

I don't think a biome has ever changed once the chunk has been first created.

[gumstitch]

i'm not so sure. Wandering around the server, there will be area that are clearly forest for example, but when you hit F3 it says it's a desert biome.

[Poopyhead pianoman ♫]

I've never spotted that. If so, our world is very ... special... since it's been around for many world-gen algorithm changes.

[Superman]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the weather and stuff changes. It's not always noticeable because sand, grass, trees, etc.. stay the same. We have deserts with snow and arid grasslands though.

[gumstitch]

Grass is very telling of the biome type.
It's shade changes depending on the biome.

Grasslands will be a pale green, swamp is a dark green, forest/field is normal green, desert grass looks very dry,  jungle is very strong deep green, savanna grass is a dark yellow-y green.

There are well over a dozen different biomes now, but not all support grass.
One i'm hopeing we find is the ice plains with spikes. extremely rare, even on newly-seeded worlds.
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Ice_Plains_Spikes.png?version=49f3eab375ba68b117a4adacd75b5eb2

[Poopyhead pianoman ♫]

It seems like that biome is an approximation of the poles. It says that no trees spawn there.

I also had forgotten that the world height is now doubled from what it was when I left. 256 blocks high, right?

[gumstitch]

Something like that, yeah.