Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Biome Palettes Grid
Biome Palettes Grid
OptiFine offers an alternative, first proposed by Misa. Like the vanilla maps, it
is -- generally, see Tips below -- a 256x256 colormap,
but the x coordinate represents the biome ID number and the y coordinate the
height. (See the Minecraft Wiki for a list of biome IDs.)
This allows complete separation between biomes and gives you full control from
bedrock to max build height.
Layout
======
Each column in the colormap represents a single biome. Please note that the image
is "flipped" vertically:
The bottom of the world (y=0) is at the top of the image and the max build height
(y=255) is at the bottom.
Sea level is y=64. Generally, you will make each column some sort of gradient.
Template (images/biome/grid/template.png)
# Grid format
format=grid
# Grid format
palette.format=grid
This makes all your custom colormaps use the grid format, so be sure that this is
what you want.
# Blocks
# For example:
# blocks=stone minecraft:sand minecraft:lever:face=wall:facing=east,west
blocks=<list>
# Image
source=<image>
# Color
color=<rgb value>
(Optional) y variance
======================
If set, this property adds random noise to the y coordinate before sampling from
the colormap, giving flat areas a more varied appearance.
A value of 2 causes the game to pick a value between y - 2 and y + 2, for example.
# Y variance
yVariance=<value>
# Y variance
palette.yVariance=<value>
(Optional) y offset
===================
# Y offset
yOffset=<value>
This subtracts a fixed value from the block's y coordinate before sampling from the
colormap.
For example a value of 64 will use the pixel at 0 for blocks between layers 0 and
64. A block at 65 will use pixel 1, 66 pixel 2, etc.
Tips
====
Forward compatibility: Unused columns in the map represent unassigned biome IDs
that may be used by either by future Minecraft versions or by mods.
Of course you can create color schemes for particular mod biomes if you know the
IDs that they use. But even if you don't,
it is best to at least pick a neutral-looking gradient for unused columns so that
new biomes will have a reasonable default appearance.
Minecraft 1.7 introduced rare variants of many biomes. For example "Birch Forest M"
(ID 155) is the rare version of "Birch Forest" (ID 27).
Conveniently, the rare is always common + 128. This fact can be exploited if you
want all rare biomes to use the same color schemes
as the corresponding non-rare ones. Simply make your colormap 128 pixels wide
instead of 256, and OptiFine will "wrap" it
in the x direction when assigning columns to biomes.
Similarly, a 1-pixel wide colormap gives you the same height-based color gradient
across all biomes.
In the y direction, if you provide more than 256 pixels, OptiFine will happily use
them if the server's build height is higher than the default.
Similarly, if the colormap is shorter than 256 pixels, it will simply "top out" at
that height giving all blocks above that the same color.
In particular, a height of 64 pixels allows for variation underground and a fixed
color above sea level.
A height of 192 pixels combined with a setting of yOffset=64 gives you just the
opposite: variation above ground and a fixed color below.
A height of 1 pixel allows for variation across biomes but not by height.
References
==========
https://bitbucket.org/prupe/mcpatcher/wiki/Biome_Palettes_(Grid)
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/resource-packs/resource-
pack-discussion/1255785-b?comment=124