Biome



Biomes are regions in a Minecraft world with varying geographical features, flora, heights, temperatures, humidity ratings, sky colours and foliage colours. Introduced in the Halloween Update, biomes separate every generated world into different environments, paralleling the real world; examples of biomes include the forest, jungle, desert and tundra. Prior to the Halloween Update, every world had only a single theme, either grassy or snowy.

In the Anvil file format, biomes are stored directly in the world data. This differs from the previous Region file format format, where biomes were dynamically calculated from the seed.

The term biome is analogous to its scientific usage: on Earth, a biome is climatically and geographically defined by distinctive communities of plants, animals and soil organisms supported by similar climatic conditions. They are often referred to as ecosystems.

Biome types
There are 11 biomes as of Minecraft version 1.2.5. They can generally be distinguished by the grass and leaf colors in the biome, along with the types of block presents (e.g. types of trees or other plants like cacti, sand coverage in deserts). The biomes are pseudo-randomly generated using the map seed.

Technical biomes
Technical biomes are found alongside or within their larger counterparts. They are not considered true biomes, but more a part of the terrain itself. However, these technical biomes serve an important role in the Minecraft world in creating more realistic terrain.

There are seven known technical biomes.

Biome history


Biomes were added in Alpha 1.2.0, also known as the Halloween Update. In Beta 1.8, biomes got an overhaul, removing some biomes, such as the tundra and the taiga, and others replaced with nine fractal-based biomes that were a mix of the previous biomes and new biomes.

Anvil file format
The Anvil file format allows for biomes to be stored in the world data. In contrast, the Region file format relies on the seed to dynamically calculate biome placement. This would cause biome placement in older worlds to change when the biome generation code was changed. With the current Anvil format, the biome data is stored along with the rest of the world data, meaning it will not change after the world is generated and can be edited by third-party map-editing tools. Furthermore, "edge" biomes allow for biomes to continue extend beyond the edge chunks of an old world. This allows for smooth transitions in world generation after the generation code changes in an update.

Effect on gameplay
It can be difficult to play and gather sufficient resources if the player starts in the middle of a biome with no trees, such as deserts, tundras, and especially oceans.

There have been several reports of players spawning on tiny islands in the middle of a vast ocean with no trees for several Minecraft days in any direction. It appears that these desert islands generate in the Ocean biome, where animals cannot spawn (on the water); sometimes, the island spawns with no trees, forcing players to delete the world and start again, swim great distances to a landmass, or search for nearby underwater openings into abandoned mineshafts to acquire wood. Of course, this is not a problem if the player uses Creative Mode.