Noise-controlled patches for biome structures

[H41ogen]

Description

Structures can generate in a uniform way, like they do right now, or they can generate with variable density.

Parameters/fields

• .fullDensityThreshold - f32, 0 to 1 (the noise value at which the density of the structure spawning is at full)
• .minDensityThreshold - f32, 0 to 1 (the noise value at which the density of the structure spawning is at its minimum)
• .minDensity - f32, 0 to 1 (the minimum density multiplier that the structure will spawn at)
• .scale - f32 (the scale of the noise)
• .seed - u64 (seed for the noise, useful if you want 2 structure patches to line up. if left blank, will be random)
• .invert - bool (invert the output of the noise, useful if you want a structure to only spawn where another isnt)

It could also have a more complex or simpler behavior, whatever people think would work best. I think it would also make sense to have structures generate uniformly if none of these parameters are specified.

Examples

With minDensity at 0 and fullDensityThreshold == minDensityThreshold, structures either generate or dont. With minDensity == 0, fullDensityThreshold == 1, and minDensityThreshold == 0, structure density goes smoothly from full to to nothing.

Clearing in a birch forest with flowers

Limestone boulder patch

Other ideas

• Groves of trees in the grassland biome instead of trees being everywhere
• Clusters of multiple types of flowers/mushrooms
• Potentially less patchy snow in in snowy biomes

Overall, i think this would be a good way to add a lot more variety and make biomes less monotonous.

[Argmaster]

I am not sure we need that.

For the use cases you have listed, I am pretty sure you can implement them with a creative mix of sub biomes, smaller and bigger patches and maybe sbbs.

Use cases you listed are quite vague and it sounds a bit like nice to have rather than solving a concrete problem. Please elaborate on what problem you are trying to solve.

[H41ogen]

it's not something that's "needed", it's just something that would nake the world feel more interesting to explore since biomes are big. i feel like this is a better system than using a billion sub-biomes and weird uses of sbbs, and much easier for addon creators to learn. it also shouldn't be too hard to implement, shouldn't make generation much slower, and won't cause any breaking changes. basically i just think it'd make it a lot easier to make more varied biomes.

[IntegratedQuantum]

For the use cases you have listed, I am pretty sure you can implement them with a creative mix of sub biomes, smaller and bigger patches and maybe sbbs.

Just because it's possible to implement them that way, doesn't mean that it is the right solution. What I like about the proposed system is that it would allow you get a wider variety of large-scale shapes within a single biomes without having to do much (and, more importantly, without taking as many resources).