Biomegen

Biome generator mod for Minetest, reproducing closely the biome generator provided by Minetest's core, but in Lua. Also includes an optional elevation adjustment parameter.

It allows to use the biome systems on Lua mapgens (that do no allow to use core biome system). Since it reads registered biomes and decorations, it is compatible with all mods adding biomes/decos.

Created by Gaël de Sailly in November 2020, licensed under LGPLv3.0.

Include it in your mapgen

biomegen should be triggered during mapgen function, after the loop, but before writing to the map.

Your mapgen should generate only these 4 nodes:

• Stone (mapgen_stone / default:stone)
• Water (mapgen_water_source / default:water_source)
• River water (mapgen_river_water_source / default:river_water_source)
• Air (air)

All other nodes will be ignored, no biome will be placed ontop of them.

You should add biomegen as a dependancy of your mod (optional or mandatory).

Functions

Usual parameters:

• data: Data containing the generated mapchunk
• area: VoxelArea helper object for data. area = VoxelArea:new({MinEdge = emin, MaxEdge = emax})
• vm: VoxelManip object
• minp: minimal coordinates of the chunk being generated, e.g. {x=48, y=-32, z=208}
• maxp: maximal coordinates of the chunk being generated, e.g. {x=127, y=47, z=287}
• seed: world-specific seed

biomegen.generate_all(data, area, vm, minp, maxp, seed)

All-in-one function to generate biomes, decorations, ores and dust. Includes a call to vm:set_data so no need to do it again. Using core function minetest.generate_ores for ores, so does not support biome-specific ores.

biomegen.generate_biomes(data, area, minp, maxp)

Generates biomes in data, according to biomes that have been registered using minetest.register_biome.

biomegen.place_all_decos(data, area, vm, minp, maxp, seed)

Generates decorations directly in vm (but reads data to know where to place them), according to decorations that have been registered using minetest.register_decoration.

biomegen.dust_top_nodes(data, area, vm, minp, maxp)

Drops 'dust' (usually snow) on biomes that require it. Like above, generates directly in vm but reads from data. If you used place_all_decos to generate decorations, you should update data from the vm:

vm:get_data(data)

biomegen.set_elevation_chill(ec)

Sets elevation chill coefficient. 0 means temperature does not depend on elevation (behaviour of core's biomegen). Usual values 0-0.5.

Examples

Using biomegen.generate_all

local data = {}

minetest.register_on_generated(function(minp, maxp, seed)
	local vm, emin, emax = minetest.get_mapgen_object("voxelmanip")
	local area = VoxelArea:new{MinEdge = emin, MaxEdge = emax}
	vm:get_data(data)

	------------------------
	-- [MAPGEN LOOP HERE] --
	------------------------

	-- Generate biomes, decorations, ores and dust
	biomegen.generate_all(data, area, vm, minp, maxp, seed)

	-- Calculate lighting for what has been created.
	vm:calc_lighting()
	-- Write what has been created to the world.
	vm:write_to_map()
	-- Liquid nodes were placed so set them flowing.
	vm:update_liquids()
end)

Equivalent with all functions

local data = {}

minetest.register_on_generated(function(minp, maxp, seed)
	local vm, emin, emax = minetest.get_mapgen_object("voxelmanip")
	local area = VoxelArea:new{MinEdge = emin, MaxEdge = emax}
	vm:get_data(data)

	------------------------
	-- [MAPGEN LOOP HERE] --
	------------------------

	-- Generate biomes in 'data', using biomegen mod
	biomegen.generate_biomes(data, area, minp, maxp)

	-- Write content ID data back to the voxelmanip.
	vm:set_data(data)
	-- Generate ores using core's function
	minetest.generate_ores(vm, minp, maxp)
	-- Generate decorations in VM (needs 'data' for reading)
	biomegen.place_all_decos(data, area, vm, minp, maxp, seed)
	-- Update data array to have ores/decorations
	vm:get_data(data)
	-- Add biome dust in VM (needs 'data' for reading)
	biomegen.dust_top_nodes(data, area, vm, minp, maxp)

	-- Calculate lighting for what has been created.
	vm:calc_lighting()
	-- Write what has been created to the world.
	vm:write_to_map()
	-- Liquid nodes were placed so set them flowing.
	vm:update_liquids()
end)

Mapgen example

I have made a modified version of lvm_example (mod originally by Paramat) to provide a minimal working example of a mapgen using biomegen. Try it!