WorldConfig - PG85/OpenTerrainGenerator GitHub Wiki

This page was ported from the TerrainControl wiki and is subject to updating as OTG begins the 1.16 update process.

The WorldConfig.ini is the main settings file used by OpenTerrainGenerator. It controls most of the biome placement, cave and canyon distribution, structure spawning and some other settings. Settings that are biome specific can be found in the BiomeConfigs. On the following page the settings of this file will each be explained in detail.

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General settings

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Author:

You can add your name here. This setting is useful when sharing the file. This name is displayed in the /tc commands.

Description:

You can add a description of your world here. This is displayed in the /tc commands.

SettingsMode: WriteAll

Normally, each time Terrain Control reads the config files, it also writes to them. With this setting you can change how Terrain Control writes to the config files. Possible modes:

  • WriteAll - Autoupdate settings from old versions, order them, add comments, reset invalid settings and remove custom comments.
  • WriteWithoutComments - Same as WriteAll, but removes all comments, both the ones of Terrain Control and your own.
  • WriteDisable - Don't write to the comment files. Errors are not corrected, old settings are read, but they are also not corrected. Custom comments won't be removed with this mode.

Generator modes

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TerrainMode: Normal

These are different generators that can be used to generate your terrain.

  • Normal - This mode uses all the features of the terrain generator. Biomes still look like the ones in vanilla Minecraft.
  • OldGenerator - This generator will generate the terrain in the way the Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 terrain generator created it.
  • TerrainTest - This generator creates terrain normally but adds no resources. Is faster than Normal.
  • NotGenerate - This setting will create empty chunks of terrain.
  • Default - This generator creates default terrain. Except the biomes, all the mod settings are ignored.

BiomeMode: Normal

Here you can define how Biomes are to be generated. The following settings are available:

  • Normal - Uses all features of Terrain Control. Even with the default settings your biomes will be placed diffently than vanilla Minecraft.
  • FromImage - Reads the biomes from an image file. See 'Biome Image Generator Variables' below for more information.
  • BeforeGroups - Minecraft 1.0 - 1.6.4 biome generator, only supports the biome groups NormalBiomes and IceBiomes
  • OldGenerator - Generates biomes like in Minecraft Beta 1.7.3.
  • Default - Means the default biome generator of vanilla Minecraft will be used.

Custom biomes

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CustomBiomes:

You need to register your custom biomes here. This setting will make Terrain Control generate and read the setting files for them. However, it won't place them in the world automatically. See the settings for your BiomeMode below on how to add them to the world.

Syntax: CustomBiomes:BiomeName:id[,AnotherBiomeName:id[,...]]

Example: CustomBiomes:TestBiome1:30,BiomeTest2:31

This will add two biomes and generate the BiomeConfigs for them. All changes here need a server restart.

Due to the way Mojang's loading code works, all biome ids need to be unique on the server. If you don't do this, the client will display the biomes just fine, but the server can think it is another biome with the same id. This will cause saplings, snowfall and mobs to work as in the other biome.

The available ids range from 0 to 1023, inclusive. Minecraft 1.7 uses most IDs between the ranges of 0-39 and 129-167. Using those IDs is not possible. It is recommend to leave some room around the vanilla IDs in case new biomes are added in the future.

IDs above 255 can not be saved by Minecraft. You will need to add a ReplaceToBiomeName setting to those biomes to make sure that they are saved to the world files using an id below 256.

Settings for BiomeMode:Normal

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The values in this section only work when BiomeMode is set to Normal or BiomeMode is FromImage and ImageMode is ContinueNormal

GenerationDepth:10

Main value for generation. Bigger values 'zoom in', so that the biomes get larger:

Comparing...

All sizes (*Size) must be smaller than this.

So if you want big objects (biomes/rivers/etc.) you must set size of that objects near 0.

If you want small objects you must set size of the objects near GenerationDepth.

Also small values (about 1-2) and big values (about 20) may affect generator performance.

A tutorial (by thedeadlytao) about GenerationDepth, LandSize and LandRarity can be found here.

BiomeRarityScale:100

Max biome rarity from 1 to infinity. By default this is 100, but you can raise it for fine-grained control, or to create biomes with a chance of occurring smaller than 1/100.

Biome groups

Minecraft groups similar biomes together, so that they spawn next to each other. Most biomes in the world (but not all) spawn as part of a biome group.

Syntax: BiomeGroup(Name, Size, Rarity, BiomeName[, AnotherName[, ...]]) Name - just for clarity, choose something descriptive Size - layer to generate on, from 0 to GenerationDepth. All biomes in the group must have a BiomeSize larger than or equal to this value. Rarity - relative spawn chances. BiomeName... - names of the biome that spawn in the group. Case sensitive.

Note: if (and only if) you're using BiomeMode: BeforeGroups, only the biomes listed in the groups named NormalBiomes and IceBiomes and the size and rarity of the group named IceBiomes will be used. Other groups are ignored. The size and rarity of the NormalBiomes group is ignored as well, use LandSize and LandRarity instead.

Default biome groups:

BiomeGroup(NormalBiomes, 0, 97, Forest, Roofed Forest, Extreme Hills, Plains, Birch Forest, Swampland, Flower Forest, Roofed Forest M, Extreme Hills+, Sunflower Plains, Birch Forest M, Swampland M)
BiomeGroup(IceBiomes, 3, 90, Ice Plains, Cold Taiga, Ice Plains Spikes, Cold Taiga M)
BiomeGroup(HotBiomes, 0, 97, Desert, Savanna, Plains, Desert M, Savanna M, Sunflower Plains)
BiomeGroup(ColdBiomes, 0, 97, Forest, Extreme Hills, Taiga, Plains, Flower Forest, Extreme Hills+, Taiga M, Sunflower Plains)
BiomeGroup(MesaBiomes, 1, 40, Mesa)
BiomeGroup(JungleBiomes, 1, 40, Jungle, Jungle M)
BiomeGroup(Mega TaigaBiomes, 1, 40, Mega Taiga, Mega Spruce Taiga)

Biome lists

Not all biomes spawn as part of a group. Some biomes spawn as "isles" in other biomes, or as borders on other biomes.

IsleBiomes: Deep Ocean, MushroomIsland, Ice Mountains, DesertHills, ForestHills, Forest, TaigaHills, JungleHills, Cold Taiga Hills, Birch Forest Hills, Extreme Hills+, Mesa Plateau, Mesa Plateau F, Mesa Plateau M, Mesa Plateau F M, Mesa (Bryce), Mega Taiga Hills, Mega Spruce Taiga Hills

Biomes which used as isles. Biome name is case sensitive. Inside the biome config of the biome you can decide in which biome this isle should spawn. Please note that the Hills-biomes are actually 'islands' inside a biome. Jeb_ has done this in Minecraft 1.1 to make the terrain generator more interesting: players were complaining that the biomes were too flat.

BorderBiomes: MushroomIslandShore, Beach, Extreme Hills Edge, Desert, Taiga

Biomes that are used as borders. Biome name is case sensitive. In the biome config of the biome you can specify next to which biome this border should spawn. You can also set there next to which biome this border should not spawn.

Landmass settings

LandRarity: 97

Land rarity from 100 to 1. Higher numbers give more land. Values are quite sensitive, look at the image. Set it to 100 to completely disable oceans.

Comparing...

As you can see the oceans are completely gone with LandRarity:100.

LandSize: 0

Land size from 0 to GenerationDepth. Making LandSize larger will make the size of the land smaller.

LandFuzzy: 6

Generates more lakes (=small ocean biomes) at the edge of the continent. As a side effect, the continent will also get a bit larger. Must be from 0 to GenerationDepth - LandSize. Map of the edge of a continent:

Comparing...

See also this forum topic about the setting.

Ice area settings

FrozenOcean:true

Make the water of the oceans near a cold biome frozen. The exact definition of 'cold' is controlled by the next setting.

OceanFreezingTemperature: 0.15

This is the maximum biome temperature when a biome is still considered cold. Water in oceans nearby cold biomes freezes if FrozenOcean is set to true.

Temperature reference from vanilla Minecraft: < 0.15 for snow, 0.15 - 0.95 for rain, or > 1.0 for dry

FreezeAllBiomesInColdGroup: false

If the average of all biome temperatures in a biome group is less than "OceanFreezingTemperature", then:

  • When this setting is true, all biomes in the group will have frozen oceans
  • When this setting is false, only individual biomes with a temperature below "OceanFreezingTemperature" will have frozen oceans

River settings

RiverRarity:4

River rarity. Must be from 0 to GenerationDepth.

RiverSize:0

River size from 0 to GenerationDepth - RiverRarity. Making this larger will make the rivers larger, without affecting how much rivers will spawn.

Comparing...

RiversEnabled:true

Enable or disable rivers. If you just want rivers in some biomes, set this to true and disable the rivers in the BiomeConfigs instead.

RandomRivers:false

Normally the rivers follow the biome borders most of the time. Set this setting to true to disable this behaviour.

ImprovedRivers:false

Normally rivers use technical biomes to generate. In the default settings the biomes River and FrozenRiver are used.

If you set this setting to true, the technical biomes won't be used anymore in the world. This causes the rivers to look exactly like the biome they are flowing through: no more sudden changes of grass color. The height settings of the river can now be found in the biome the river is flowing through.

Settings for BiomeMode:FromImage

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The values in this section only work when BiomeMode is set to FromImage.

ImageMode:Repeat

What to do when terrain is generated outside the boundaries of the image: Repeat, ContinueNormal, FillEmpty

Repeat - repeat the image.

Mirror - mirrors the image.

ContinueNormal - continue normal generation.

FillEmpty - fill it with one biome.

ImageFile:map.png

PNG file to read the biomes from. Place it next to the WorldConfig.ini file.

ImageOrientation: East

How the image is oriented: North, South, East or West. When this is set to North, the image is placed in the world in the normal way. When it is set to East, the image is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise in memory so, that what is on the east in the image becomes north in the world.

ImageFillBiome:Ocean

When using the FillEmpty mode this biome will be used when generating outside the image.

ImageXOffset:0

ImageZOffset:0

Translates the map origin. For some reason, this number needs to be multiplied with -1 when using FillEmpty.

Terrain height and volatility

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WorldHeightScaleBits:7

The height scale of the world. Increasing this by one doubles the terrain height of the world, substracting one halves the terrain height. Values must be between 5 and 8, inclusive.

WorldHeightCapBits:8

The height cap of the world. A cap of 7 will make sure that there is no terrain above y=2^7=128. Near this cap less and less terrain generates with no terrain above this cap. Values must be between 5 and 8, inclusive. Values may not be lower that WorldHeightScaleBits.

FractureHorizontal:0.0

Can increase (values greater than 0) or decrease (values less than 0) how much the landscape is fractured horizontally.

FractureVertical:0.0

Can increase (values greater than 0) or decrease (values less than 0) how much the landscape is fractured vertically.

Positive values will lead to large cliffs/overhangs, floating islands, and/or a cavern world depending on other settings.

A comparisation of different FractureHorizontal and FractureVertical values:

Comparing

Blocks

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RemoveSurfaceStone:false

Set this to true to place the biome surface block on top of all exposed stone:

Comparing

DisableBedrock: false

Disable bottom of map bedrock generation. Doesn't affect ceiling bedrock.

CeilingBedrock: false

Enable ceiling of map bedrock generation.

FlatBedrock: false

Toggles whether bedrock is generated as a single, flat layer.

Normally, the amount of bedrock decreases gradually from layers y=0 to y=5. When set to true, there will be only one solid bedrock layer at y=0.

This setting also affects the ceiling.

BedrockobBlock: BEDROCK

Block used as bedrock. See the Minecraft Wiki for possible values.

PopulationBoundsCheck: true

Terrain generation is split in two steps, chunk generation and population. During terrain popolation, Minecraft guarantees that a 2x2 square of chunks is already generated, so that population of a chunk can extend into neighbor chunks.

Depending on the direction you explored in, other chunks may also be loaded. However, you usually don't want population to affect those chunks too, as that would cause terrain object generation to be dependant on the direction you explored in.

The 2x2 chunk restriction makes it impossible to spawn BO2s and BO3s larger than 32x32 blocks. For BO3s, there is a structure system. Sometimes, there is no way to avoid spawning objects that large. If you accept that your world may look slightly different depending on the direction you explored in, set this setting to false.

See also this image for a more visual explanation

ResourcesSeed:

Allows you to use another seed for the resources than the world seed, so that the resources are generated in a different place.

This can be useful if you are frequently regenerating areas (mining areas, minigames): just change the ResourcesSeed and the ores, trees and structures will have a new position. Players won't be able anymore to write down the coordinates of where ores will regenerate.

objectSpawnRatio:1

Deprecated. Forces the UseWorld keyword to try harder to spawn an object. This setting is a relic from the old custom object spawn system. Don't use this. You won't need it. It doesn't even appear in new configs, but you can still manually add it.

If you are really curious to what this setting did, read on. Prior to Terrain Control 2.3 there was a very strange spawn system. The resource Tree(...) couldn't spawn custom objects, CustomStructure(...) and Sapling(...) didn't exist yet. The only way to spawn custom objects was by writing down CustomObject(). That resource didn't accept any parameters. For each chunk, it picked one BO2 from the BOBPlugins folder (the old WorldObjects folder). The BO2 failed to spawn if, for example, the biome in the chunk didn't match the spawnInBiome setting. The CustomObject() resource would try objectSpawnRatio times to spawn an object before giving up.

This means that if you had a lot of biomes, Terrain Control would pick an object that cannot spawn in the biome in the chunk very frequently. This also means that if you add a BO2 to the BOBPlugins folder that spawns in just a few biomes, all other biomes would have less BO2s. In both cases the solution was to give objectSpawnRatio a higher value.

Nowadays, you can make a list of objects to spawn in each [BiomeConfig]]. The keyword [UseWorld has been added to mimic the old behaviour. It is recommend however to use UseWorldAll which processes each object in the WorldObjects folder individually. As long as objectSpawnRatio is kept at 1, UseWorld essentially functions as "pick one object from the WorldObjects folder and try to spawn it".

Water and ice

WaterLevelMax:64

WaterLevelMin:0

The water level. Every empty block between this levels will be flooded with the WaterBlock (see below). Caves are exempt.

In the biome configs you can override all water values using UseWorldWaterLevel:false in there.

WaterBlock:9

Block id used as water in WaterLevel. 9 is water, 11 is lava. Other block ids can be found on the Minecraft Wiki.

IceBlock:79

Block id used as ice. See the Minecraft Wiki for other possible values.

Structures

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Strongholds

Generate-structures in the server.properties file is ignored by Terrain Control. Use these settings instead.

StrongholdsEnabled:true

Whether the strongholds are enabled.

StrongholdCount:3

The number of strongholds in the world.

StrongholdDistance:32.0

According to the Minecraft Wiki, this determines how far strongholds are from the spawn and other strongholds (minimum is 1.0, default is 32.0).

StrongholdSpread:3

According to the Minecraft Wiki, this determines how concentrated strongholds are around the spawn (minimum is 1, default is 3). Lower number, lower concentration.

Villages

VillagesEnabled:true

Whether the villages are enabled for the world. generate-structures in the server.properties file is ignored.

VillageSize:0

The size of the village. Larger is bigger. Normal worlds have 0 as default, superflat worlds 1.

VillageDistance:32

The minimum distance between the village centers in chunks. Minimum value is 9.

Rare buildings

Rare buildings are either desert pyramids, jungle temples or swamp huts. Which type of rare building will spawn can be changed in the BiomeConfigs.

RareBuildingsEnabled: true

Whether the rare buildings are enabled. generate-structures in the server.properties file is ignored.

MinimumDistanceBetweenRareBuildings: 9

The minimum distance between rare buildings in chunks.

MaximumDistanceBetweenRareBuildings: 32

The maximum distance between rare buildings in chunks.

Ocean monuments

OceanMonumentsEnabled: true

Whether ocean monuments are enabled.

A setting with the same name can also be found in the BiomeConfigs. When at least one of the two it set to false, the ocean monument won't spawn. In other words: setting this to false in the WorldConfig will disable ocean monuments in all biomes, regardless of the value of the setting in the biomes.

OceanMonumentGridSize: 32

Ocean monuments are placed on the corners of a grid, with a random offset added to each corner. This setting represents the size of the grid in chunks. Setting this to 8 will give a grid with cells of 8x8 chunks.

OceanMonumentRandomOffset: 26

Random offset from each corner of the grid defined by OceanMonumentGridSize in chunks, on both the x and z axis. May not be smaller than 0, and may not be larger than OceanMonumentGridSize.

Custom structures

MaximumCustomStructureRadius: 5

Maximum radius of custom structures in chunks.

Using the CustomStructure resource (see biome configuration files) and BO3s, you can create your own structures. Just like Minecraft's structures, they are too big to fit in a chunk, so they must be placed in parts. The CustomStructure resource searches nearby chunks for unfinished structures. The more chunks are searched, the larger a structure can be, but the slower structure generation becomes.

The radius is of a square, so a radius of 5 allows custom structures to be up to 10x10 chunks.

Other structures

MineshaftsEnabled:true

Whether the underground abandoned mineshafts are enabled. generate-structures in the server.properties file is ignored.

NetherFortressesEnabled:false

Whether the Nether fortresses are enabled. Can spawn even in the overworld if this is set to true. generate-structures in the server.properties file is ignored.

World visual settings

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Warning: values in this section will work only for clients with singleplayer version of TerrainControl

You can change the sky, grass and foliage colors inside the biome configs.

WorldFog:0xc0d8ff

World fog color

WorldNightFog:0x0b0d17

World night fog color

Cave Variables

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This information has been copied from Bucyruss' BiomeTerrainMod.

caveRarity:7

This controls the odds that a given chunk will host a single cave and/or the start of a cave system.

caveFrequency:40

The number of times the cave generation algorithm will attempt to create single caves and cave systems in the given chunk. This value is larger because the likelihood for the cave generation algorithm to bailout is fairly high and it is used in a randomizer that trends towards lower random numbers. With an input of 40 (default) the randomizer will result in an average random result of 5 to 6. This can be turned off by setting the "even cave distribution" setting (below) to true.

caveMinAltitude:8

caveMaxAltitude:128

Sets the minimum and maximum altitudes at which caves will be generated. These values are used in a randomizer that trends towards lower numbers so that caves become more frequent the closer you get to the bottom of the map. Setting even cave distribution (above) to true will turn off this randomizer and use a flat random number generator that will create an even density of caves at all altitudes.

individualCaveRarity:25

The odds that the cave generation algorithm will generate a single cavern without an accompanying cave system. Note that whenever the algorithm generates an individual cave it will also attempt to generate a pocket of cave systems in the vicinity (no guarantee of connection or that the cave system will actually be created).

caveSystemFrequency:1

The number of times the algorithm will attempt to start a cave system in a given chunk per cycle of the cave generation algorithm (see cave frequency setting above). Note that setting this value too high with an accompanying high cave frequency value can cause extremely long world generation time.

caveSystemPocketChance:0

This can be set to create an additional chance that a cave system pocket (a higher than normal density of cave systems) being started in a given chunk. Normally, a cave pocket will only be attempted if an individual cave is generated, but this will allow more cave pockets to be generated in addition to the individual cave trigger.

caveSystemPocketMinSize:0

caveSystemPocketMaxSize:4

The minimum and maximum size that a cave system pocket can be. This modifies/overrides the cave system frequency setting (above) when triggered.

evenCaveDistribution:false

Setting this to true will turn off the randomizer for cave frequency (above). Do note that if you turn this on you will probably want to adjust the cave frequency down to avoid long load times at world creation.

Canyon Variables

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What the plugin calls "canyons" are actually ravines. You can find the settings for them here. They haven't really been investigated yet. Feel free to add more information.

canyonRarity:2

canyonMinAltitude:20

canyonMaxAltitude:68

canyonMinLength:84

canyonMaxLength:112

canyonDepth:3.0

Settings for BiomeMode:Oldgenerator

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These settings only work when BiomeMode is set to OldGenerator.

oldBiomeSize:1.5

minMoisture:0.0

maxMoisture:1.0

minTemperature:0.0

maxTemperature:1.0