About the map generator

[ArneK]

First of all I absolutely love the current map generator with all the sliders for different biomes. It is fantastic tool and I once made full snow map that had beautiful winter lakes and snowy mountains (though it still had some pine forest areas generated here an there even with 0 % setting and it was awesome).

 

What I'd like to see in the future is that you could alter the locations for different biomes. For example you could pinpoint the snow biome to be generated in specific direction (like east) and desert biome in the opposite direction (west) or leave it as random. I always try to generate maps where snow and desert biome are not adjacent (for better immersion), but it's very hard to have such map. Or at least I don't know how to without setting the other or both to very small percentage and even then it doesn't work most of the time.

 

[zztong]

You might mention this in the Pimp Dreams part of the forums. That's where people post suggestions.

 

In the mean time, did you know the biomes for a world are defined in a graphic file (biomes.png) in the folder for your generated world? For instance:

 

C:\Users\zzton\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\GeneratedWorlds\Bakeje Valley\biomes.png

 

Each biome is represented by a color. If you alter that map, you're altering where the biomes are. You can literally paint the biomes any way you want. I think you can even put the "Burnt Woods" back into play.

Edited December 31, 2022 by zztong (see edit history)

[Catdaddy]

As mentioned, you can customize biomes in Paint. To re-add burned biome, use RGB 186, 0, 255:

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2910259067

[ArneK]

3 hours ago, zztong said:

You might mention this in the Pimp Dreams part of the forums. That's where people post suggestions.

 

In the mean time, did you know the biomes for a world are defined in a graphic file (biomes.png) in the folder for your generated world? For instance:

 

C:\Users\zzton\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\GeneratedWorlds\Bakeje Valley\biomes.png

 

Each biome is represented by a color. If you alter that map, you're altering where the biomes are. You can literally paint the biomes any way you want. I think you can even put the "Burnt Woods" back into play.

Well I did know there was that file biomes.png and that it is even generated quite early (biome stamps or something) in the generating process. I usually check that file before letting the game to finish the map to see if it's any good with the biome stamps.

 

What I didn't know that one could just repaint it with those colors.

 

So you mean if I just pick the file in to a program like Gimp or even Paint and just change the colors to alter the map in the game without completely screwing things? And I only need to check the RBG color values stay same as they are for each biome?

 

If that's the case then this is the most amazing new info which I have missed so far and wished I knew this way way before

[Data]

this might help you

 

 

[ArneK]

What I noticed in that video was that those cacti appeared on the pine forest biome after the editing and gives me a small concern about editing the biomes.png file. I don't want to mess things too much like making cacti appear on snow or something.

 

edit: misspelled some words as english is not my main language.

Edited December 31, 2022 by ArneK (see edit history)

[ArneK]

Ok I tested it this way:

 

I didn't start any game as in the video he suggested. I just went straight to editing biomes.png. Made big purple circle in the middle where 4 generated biomes were all present. There was nice burnt forest circle with right trees inside.  So no problem there.

 

I also added 3 squares of other biomes inside every 4 generated biome section. I can confirm that oak trees were growing inside green pine forest square in snow biome and cacti only grew inside desert square inside snow biome. And cacti didn't grow inside pine forest square. You can see both of these in the screenshots below.

 

So at least if you don't generate "all necessary files" before editing, it will work as I hoped for.

 

Thank you very much for the help guys!

[zztong]

8 hours ago, ArneK said:

So you mean if I just pick the file in to a program like Gimp or even Paint and just change the colors to alter the map in the game without completely screwing things? And I only need to check the RBG color values stay same as they are for each biome?

 

Yes. The color indicates the biome for the block represented by the position of the pixel. Gimp to the rescue!

 

Happy editing. I suggest backing up your world first until you're sure everything works.

 

Ah! I see you've tried it. Awesome. FYI, I'm pretty sure trees and things aren't placed by RWG. I think they're placed by the game as it loads parts of the world for the first time. If I'm right, I think the decorations stuff in biomes.xml control what appears.

Edited January 1, 2023 by zztong (see edit history)

[Riamus]

I'm curious... Can this cause problems with cities if you were to split a biome in the middle of one that was already generated there?

[zztong]

16 hours ago, Riamus said:

I'm curious... Can this cause problems with cities if you were to split a biome in the middle of one that was already generated there?

 

I'm going to guess "no." I'm going to speculate:

 

I think when the chunk is generated, block by block, it determines what decorations are placed based on the biome for that block. I think it determines the weather effects based on the biome of the block the player is standing. (That's all 2-dimensional thinking, that is the block on the surface.)

 

If I'm correct, I think you can even split a POI with a biome line and it will work fine.

Edited January 2, 2023 by zztong (see edit history)

[ArneK]

Only nuisance that I see is that the lighting effect for different biomes can be annoying if it changes inside the town. But that's why I think it's better to check the picture in the map generator screen, to take a screen capture and make the biome changes according to that picture so that biomes changes logically and not inside the town.