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Making terrain generation more immersive in 1.17

Currently, a given biome (e.g a forest) will always spawn at roughly the same height above sea level, with the same grass/foliage colour. This is because each biome has fixed values for depth, temperature and downfall - parameters which control terrain height and grass colour. As a result, every time you come across a specific biome, it looks pretty much the same. Most of the possible build height and grass colours are not used by the terrain generator.

My suggestion is to utilise depth, temperature and downfall as continuous variables, rather than discrete ones, and make them intrinsic properties of the terrain, rather than hard-coded properties of a given biome - the height and grass colour would be independent of the biome type. Each block in the world would have a value for depth, temperature and downfall, generated by a noise map. Biomes would all be assigned a range of values of these parameters that they can generate in. Biomes would be assigned block-by-block based on how well they fit the combination of parameters at that block.

Such changes would mean that proper highlands and lowlands could be generated, creating rolling mountains and beautiful valleys/lakes, utilising much more of the available y-space. It would also mean that, even within a single biome, the terrain height and grass/foliage colours would vary, and would transition smoothly between biomes. Overall, these changes would make Minecraft terrain and biomes far more diverse, dramatic and immersive. 

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  • 5
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    This is a really good idea, we really need more diversity in both biomes and terrain heights. Imagine if we could have Minecraft worlds looking like they do in the Buzzy Bee trailer.

  • 3
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    This would be great! Would this make the biome placement more logical (i.e. no deserts next to snowy forests)

  • 2
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    Tabarnaque8507 I agree, the terrain in the Buzzy Bees trailer looks amazing, although it would require quite large render distances to see it in all its glory. A similar style of terrain on smaller length scales would perhaps be more viable.  

  • 4
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    Noah Boyd For sure, there should never be biomes of very differing temperature/downfall spawning next to each other as long as they are configured correctly. So, suppose we have temperature and downfall scales both going from -1 to +1. A desert could be set to spawn with temperatures between 0.5 and 1 and downfalls between -0.5 and -1. A snowy taiga could spawn with temperatures between -0.5 and -1 and downfalls between -0.5 and -1. While they both spawn at the same downfall levels, they have very different temperatures and so, unless there is a change in temperature from -0.5 to +0.5 over a ridiculously short distance (e.g 10 blocks), the two biomes should never be able to spawn next to each other.

    This system would also mean that there is more scope for 'transition' biomes. Currently, deserts and snowy taigas do sometimes spawn next to each other, creating unsightly borders and sharp transitions between the yellowish grass of the desert and the bluish green grass of the snowy biomes. Using a system like I have outlined, along the path between a snowy biome and a desert, the trees and the snow could begin to become less common, and the grass/foliage colours would slowly change colour, and eventually we could transition to 'cool plains' and 'cool desert' type biomes and eventually to the desert. I think that it would add so much more scope to the currently uniform Minecraft biomes, and make each spot in the world much more unique, and so it would be much more fun to explore!