voxel-biomes v0.0.15

voxel-biomes

Distribute generators across a surface in a deterministic way to produce infinite volumetric terrain.

See it in action (requires WebGL)

Each chunk is loaded without any information about the neighboring chunk, but the built in biomes produce continuous terrain, regardless.

Biome Options

• name - The label name of the biome
• rarity - common/uncommmon/rare
• ground - this is a function factory generator which defines voxels for the ground layer.
• groundGeometry - There are scenarios where you need to minimize the calculation of individual voxels and scenarios where you want to optimize the cost of a chunk. Defining the chunk in terms of a terrain generator and a set of voxels allows you to work in either mode. the function must return an instance of require('voxel-biomes').GeometryReducer
• underground - this is a function factory generator which defines all layers under the ground layer (defaults to solid dirt).
• sky - this is a function factory generator which defines all layers above the ground layer (defaults to 'solid' air).

Classes

• WorldBuilder - The main export: an object which distributes biomes across the world and exports a single, composite generator.
  • .addBiome(<biome object>)
  • .buildGenerator(<distribution algorithm>)
• .GeometryReducer(<generator function>) - A voxel reducer you pass a generator function to in the constructor, then can pass coordinate lists, or require('voxel-generators/objects/*') instances.
  • .integrated(context) - export a submesh generator which minimizes the cost of generating a submesh
  • .calculated(context) - export a voxel generator factory which minimizes the cost of a calculation for any one voxel
  • .add(<geometry or voxel-generator/object>) - add more objects into the scene

Examples

• Simple Example - This will produce a flat continuous 1 block thick slab as far as you can run. It will be material 1 in common areas, material 2 in uncommon areas and material 3 in rare areas, and because we pick a prime distribution, uncommon and rare biomes are more infrequent and continuous common areas increase in size as you move outward from the origin.
• Realistic Example - This is pretty close to what you would see in minecraft, but with only a few biomes (and dead trees :P ), with an even distribution of biome sizes throughout (3x3 areas which means for every 9 common biomes there are 6 uncommons and 2 rares.
• Transforming Materials - This is similar to the realistic example above, but uses hints on the biomes (.mcmap) to map from the default output to a loaded texture pack.
• Client Only - A pure client side implementation which you can check out live.

• Other Uses - The biome.buildGenerator(<distribution>) function produces a function factory, which you can wire up to anything.. building a garbage collection mob that resets chunks to their 'natural' state? saving just diffs from the natural state? building an entropy system? go nuts! The structure is essentially:

    function(chunkX, chunkY, chunkZ){
        //chunk specific work here
        return function(x, y, z){
            //voxel specific work here
        }
    }

Good Luck!

Writing Your Own Biome

(Coming Soon )

Testing

Eventually it'll be:

mocha

Enjoy,

-Abbey Hawk Sparrow