Writing terrain generation code in Java

[de5car7es]

Hi

I'm highly experienced with Java but newbie in Modding and Forge.

I want to write a mod in Java that completely change the terrain.
As a starting point I would like to create a mod that cause the entire terrain to be flat above a certain height, or even entirely flat.

Can anyone direct me for a tutorial, code example or documentation for that.

I found some stuff about World Gen that uses JSON, but that is not what I am looking for.

Thanks ! 

[warjort]

Json files (datapacks) is the way you do this. You will find a lot of information about them on the internet.

 

The main community developed documentation I know about are:

https://misode.github.io/ and https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Data_pack

the second of those is really just a collation of all the minecraft release notes.

The first also has the vanilla world gen files:

https://github.com/misode/mcmeta/tree/data/data/minecraft/dimension

https://github.com/misode/mcmeta/tree/data/data/minecraft/dimension_type

https://github.com/misode/mcmeta/tree/data/data/minecraft/worldgen

 

Those json files are just configuration files that create java objects using codecs: https://forge.gemwire.uk/wiki/Codecs

either as;

* simple values or "records"/collections of them

* references to objects created from other json fles

* references to objects that are constructed and registered programmatically such as the vanilla provided presets, dimensions, chunk generators, carvers, features, structures, etc.

 

If you want to create flat terrain, I would suggest you start with vanilla's FlatLevelSource and FlatLevelGeneratorPresets and follow the rabbit hole.

 

As for tutorials, even if you find one, it is likely out-of-date. The modern worldgen has been marked as experimental since 1.16.

Mojang keep iterating on it without any real constraints of compatiblity across versions - the json file formats are more stable than the code they configure

I would suggest you read the vanilla source - net.minecraft.world.level.levelgen.* and net.minecraft.data.worldgen.*

or search on github for up-to-date implementations by other mods of the classes you are interested in.

 

[de5car7es]

Hey, just wanted to thank you for the detailed answer,

you are awesome ! 💜