Geography

[Pixie 1]

 

 

Latitude

Ambient Temperature calculations are such that the average temperature at a given latitude will be similar to the same latitude in degrees north of the equator in a continental (ie non-coastal) location of North America. This results in world generation similar to that of the real world, with deserts near the equator, and arctic near the poles.

 

So, this is the wiki entry for latitude, and I'm trying to wrap my head around co-ordinates and how they effect the geography.

My home is at (42,144,-8525), and thought that by heading south I'd reach sunnier climes, how ever after 4000 blocks in a boat, I still had yet to hit a landmass.

After returning home, I  sailed around my home island and saw, barely, some leaves. Following this I found another, larger, landmass. 

 

So, my questions are:

1) Which way to the equator?

2) Are the landmasses supposed to be a pangaea?

 

[Kittychanley 1,002]

1) A Z coordinate of 0 is the equator, you have another 4,000+ blocks to go.

2) Here's an example of a pre-generated map going from north pole (-30,000 Z) to the south pole (30,000 Z)

 

 

As reference: a pregenerated map (approx 30000 x 44000) from the crococraft server (map will go live this weekend). You can easily see why the oceans feel so huge:

For an interactive google maps like experience: http://www.crococraft.com/index.php/server-map

 

 

 

[Pixie 1]

*gulp*

 

So much for a winter holiday.

 

Thanks Kitty

[Shini_otoba 6]

Why are the islands so broken and jagged?  That has been my one biggest issue so far, it is impossible to find a place that is remotely flat to build a base, also way too much water.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Keep in mind the scale of that image. Every pixel on it is around 30x30 blocks, or a 2x2 chunk area.

 

In other words, this little area is is 900 by 900 blocks.

 

 

I don't know about you, but I don't do very many builds that are that huge.

 

Edit: Here's that same island blown up to scale so that 1 pixel equals one block. I've also overlaid a rough chunk (16x16 block) grid. If you use a minimap with this feature, it's a bit easier to compare for reference.

 

[Shini_otoba 6]

Keep in mind the scale of that image. Every pixel on it is around 30x30 blocks, or a 2x2 chunk area.

 

In other words, this little area is is 900 by 900 blocks.

 

 

I don't know about you, but I don't do very many builds that are that huge.

 

Edit: Here's that same island blown up to scale so that 1 pixel equals one block. I've also overlaid a rough chunk (16x16 block) grid. If you use a minimap with this feature, it's a bit easier to compare for reference.

 

 

I still feel that on the micro level you cannot travel more then a few blocks without yet another hill.  Early game it is a real pain to find a suitable place to build anything more then a shack without having to do some serious digging.  

Below is the flattest area I have been able to find after an ingame week of traveling.  Does the amount of hills and overall terrain roughness decrease or increase the further you go from the equator?

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Below is the flattest area I have been able to find after an ingame week of traveling.  Does the amount of hills and overall terrain roughness decrease or increase the further you go from the equator?

 

It does not. However, the biome that you are located in does indeed determine the shape of the terrain. If you were to say, find a plains biome you would see a lot flatter terrain than if you are wandering around in a rolling hills or mountain biome.

 

You also have to keep in mind that this is Minecraft, which uses procedural generation. Only so much can be done in the code to determine terrain shape, before Mojang's code takes over.

 

And I don't know about you, but in my experience even in vanilla Minecraft you usually have to do quite a bit of terraforming before being able to find a flat area to build on. I end up usually just building with the shape of the terrain and doing as little flattening out as possible. In general, this results in the build looking a lot better and more natural, in my opinion.

[protestthehero 2]

I still feel that on the micro level you cannot travel more then a few blocks without yet another hill.  Early game it is a real pain to find a suitable place to build anything more then a shack without having to do some serious digging.  

Below is the flattest area I have been able to find after an ingame week of traveling.  Does the amount of hills and overall terrain roughness decrease or increase the further you go from the equator?

 

Tfc isn't meant to be easy, Your meant to work for everything. If that means to camp in a shack for a few days so be it. i lived in a rock for a week till i had the mats to move 3k blocks to a nice place to live and made many shovels to terraform the land to my liking.

[Terex 108]

If I may, I'd like to make an observation from the massive map shown earlier. What is noticeable are the bands of continents going roughly east-west with huge oceans in between. I have found this pattern in many other seeds of my own. That suggests terrain generation is not quite random, far from it. What controls the alternating bands of oceans and continents?

[scotty2 11]

I still feel that on the micro level you cannot travel more then a few blocks without yet another hill.  Early game it is a real pain to find a suitable place to build anything more then a shack without having to do some serious digging.  

Below is the flattest area I have been able to find after an ingame week of traveling.  Does the amount of hills and overall terrain roughness decrease or increase the further you go from the equator?

 

What is that purple flower in the picture? I've never seen one

 

Also, I've had pretty good luck with finding relatively flat land on plains to make a settlement (usually by a lake). Obviously terraforming becomes required as your settlement grows to include larger structures, but that doesn't seem unreasonable to me

[Kittychanley 1,002]

What is that purple flower in the picture? I've never seen one

 

Also, I've had pretty good luck with finding relatively flat land on plains to make a settlement (usually by a lake). Obviously terraforming becomes required as your settlement grows to include larger structures, but that doesn't seem unreasonable to me

 

The purple flower is from the addon Extrafirma:

 

http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/4581-164789-extrafirma-addon-v104/

[Omicron 62]

If I may, I'd like to make an observation from the massive map shown earlier. What is noticeable are the bands of continents going roughly east-west with huge oceans in between. I have found this pattern in many other seeds of my own. That suggests terrain generation is not quite random, far from it. What controls the alternating bands of oceans and continents?

 

Nobody ever said terrain generation was random... it is procedural, which is an inherently different concept (even if the results often look similar).

 

A truly random result occurs in the absence of any and all rules. A procedural result is occurs through a set of rules and conditions that describe the expected result. It will be a different result each time, but always within the same bounds. For example, the sea level is always at y=63 in vanilla Minecraft, and something like y=140 in TFC (i haven't checked in detail lately). There is no random variation there because sea level is a fixed rule that the terrain generator must obey.

 

I'm not sure what causes continents to spawn so oddly strung out, but then again, there's a reason Mojang reworked the terrain generator in 1.7 It was a much needed overhaul. And Bioxx already showed that some of his work on B79, which is aimed at 1.7, will involve a reworked world generation features on TFC's side as well.