Customizable Terrain Generator (Replacement for Realistic Terrain Generator)

[idle sinew]

I started a conversation with @torpid stone a few minutes ago under #mods-discussion discussion and he agrees with me that version 1.12.2 of Minecraft could benefit from a highly customizable terrain generator that is compatible with most other terrain generation mods here are portions of the original message from the conversation explaining what such a mod should feature:
Quotes from myself:
"Is there any current interest in the 1.12 modding coalition in creating a customizable replacement for the Realistic Terrain Generator? I've already spoken with srs_bsns a few times and he doesn't believe the current version of the mod can be modified to increase the maximum mountain height or to make the terrain more customizable...
"Here's what I would be looking for in such a mod:
Configurable to most dimensions, including custom dimensions (e.g. Twilight Forest, Aether, Skulk Dimension).
Terrain generation can be enabled or disabled for a given dimension at least upon world creation.
Maximum mountain height can be changed in world generation settings for each individual dimension.
Tree generation similar to the original RTG mod that inspired this project. This can be changed individually for each dimension in settings."

xkforce replied that the mod should also be "a terrain generator that can add specific features eg. smooth rolling hills and the like to specific biomes without completely overhaulling the interface entirely"

At the moment I cannot fund the project directly due to an IRL event that happened last week. I expect the project to take more than a year to complete based on the scale of work required. Thankfully, there shouldn't be any need to design any new blocks since this is primarily a terrain generation mod.

[long quest]

I currently use RTG+, and it is great other than the lack of options for customization. IIRC BiomeTweaker doesn't even work properly with it. (Which, let's be honest, would singlehandedly be enough customization for pretty much anything we want)

[idle sinew]

Have you paid attention to whether or not RTG+ can work on other dimensions besides the overworld or if the max mountain height can be adjusted? xkforce also mentioned his desire to be able to generate sand dunes.

[torpid stone]

My pack has 186 dimensions in it so it is slightly important that terrain generation work outside of the overworld

[long quest]

IIRC it is overworld only, could be wrong though

[torpid stone]

That is a problem

[frigid osprey]

Have you looked into dimensionalcontrol? If you combine it with Biometweaker's ability to make new biomes you can do just about anything you'd want to. Obviously for more complicated goals you'd need a pretty intricate script, but if you'd be waiting a year for this mod anyways it might be worth looking in to

[long quest]

I think the goal of this particular comission is to get near that level of flexibility, but without having to recreate every biome from scratch. Ideally something where you can just plug in BOP like how RTG does.

[torpid stone]

I already use those two and no you cannot make sand dunes and rolling hills with them.

There are limits to what can be currently done

[frigid osprey]

what specifically are you struggling with on that front? Like the terrain smoothing?

[torpid stone]

You cannot make a biome with sand dunes. It does not work. I have tried with cave generator which does just fine with infinitely large biomes but that breaks horribly at the biome edges

And you really cant do that with biometweaker or dimensional control

[frigid osprey]

yeah, but your issue is that the dunes are presumably too jagged, right?

[torpid stone]

No.

[long quest]

IIRC OTG probably can, but that's incompatible with like, everything

And same issue, gotta make stuff from scratch

[torpid stone]

The edges just drop straight down

[frigid osprey]

I mean if you made a dedicated dune biome

not with cg

[torpid stone]

It does not work

I have tried many times with the devs' assistance.

[frigid osprey]

yeah, but that was with cg, right? What's the issue with just making a dunes biome? Because if it's just that the dunes aren't smooth enough, you can set generator options into dc just like the custom world type

[torpid stone]

Look I know you are trying to help but you seriously underestimate what I have attempted.

[frigid osprey]

like what's wrong with something like this?

[torpid stone]

Sigh... Rolling hills and sand dunes dont look like this.

[slate orchid]

i think he is looking for more of something like this

not like one big hill

[torpid stone]

Yep

[slate orchid]

honestly you could prob do it with 2 layers of noise, and just square one to add

that should give your defined tips of the hills and an overall smoothness and simplicity of a desert

for these ones you could prob 2x it and put it through an absolute value to give you the inversiony things

and then you can add it to a layer of noise

[frigid osprey]

Something more like this then? This was made with two biomes of differing heights in DC. Sorry to derail the thread, if the requesters want a specific mod for this that's their prerogative, but you can do a lot more than most people realize with dimensionalcontrol and biometweaker. I could refine this further if requested, however - I realize it's maybe a bit steep for rolling hills, but that's mostly a matter of biome height values than anything else

[idle sinew]

Are you aware of any noise generation models that can generate linear dune structures such as in Rub' al-Khali in the Arabian Peninsula? This is an aerial photograph of the region from Wikimedia Commons.

There are also crescent shaped dunes that can form. It would probably be best to limit dune generation to the easiest to form with a noise generation model. This is another aerial photograph of a dune field from Wikimedia Commons that has a different structure.

Here's an image of some crescent dunes found in Proctor Crater on Mars.

[strong gale]

If its just about being linear you just change the scaling differently for x vs z

[idle sinew]

There's also the unique crest structure of dunes to take into account.

[torpid stone]

Theres the scale of it too. The curves are relatively gentle not jagged or short range

A sand dune is dozens of meters wide, often larger

Creating truely flat biomes has also proven problematic at the biome borders. Flattening the surface is easy but theres no smooth transition at the borders

An example would be salt flats

Biome placement relative to other biomes may be another issue but this may be something dimensional control can handle. That said I do not have any example configs for doing this. eg. Ocean biome variants, death valley like biomes that have very low biome heights but are deserts, multibiome structures like olympus mons etc

[idle sinew]

I'm not sure how this would help the project. This is a video of a Mojang employee explaining how the newer terrain generation works for versions 1.18 and later in Minecraft. Sounds like adding dunes would be an interesting challenge for the custom terrain generator project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSa5O6knuwI

[idle sinew]

Here's another post from an old 2012 Google Group (I'm surprised anyone actually used that service). The coder generated some sand dunes using ridged multifractal noise. My mathematical knowledge ends at Algebra-II so I have no idea if such a code could generate convincing sand dunes.
https://groups.google.com/g/dunecraft/c/2amAqmXZD8U

[idle sinew]

I'd also like to point out that the Better End backport for 1.12 could benefit from a custom terrain generator since there are at least two biomes that are mountainous (Crystal Mountains and Painted Mountains).

[idle sinew]

@tawny mantle Are you up to the task of taking on this project?

[idle sinew]

Here's some more information on sand dune shapes that I found online. I'm not sure what other terrain generation xkforce was looking for besides smooth rolling hills:
https://opengeology.in/sand-dunes-and-their-classification/