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Biomes Example

A very old image of biomes work-in-progress, you can clearly see that biome grass colors have not been implemented at this point. "To the right of the player is a Taiga (mostly over the ocean), to the left is either a Forest, or Woods, I can’t remember. In the distance is probably tundra." -Notch

File:Biomes Graph.jpg

The biomes graph from Notch.

BiomesGraph

The graph above recreated.

According to Wikipedia, biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems.

In Minecraft, from the Halloween Update onwards, this means different areas with different heights, temperatures, humidity ratings and foliage colors are created.

Before the Halloween update, when a map was generated it got a theme of either Snowy or Grassy. After this update, a single world includes all themes in a logical fashion determined by the biomes graph.

A demonstration can be viewed here.

Pre-Update Saves

Worlds generated prior to the update remained unchanged save for alterration of the grass color. This "biome" is called Shrubland. However, any new chunks generated (by the player moving outside of the pre-biome world's generated bounds) do generate biomes, just as The Nether is generated when you first enter it using a portal.

Biome Types

Grasscolor

A .png from the minecraft files that determines the color of the grass at certain temperatures and rainfalls.

Foliagecolor

A .png from the minecraft files that determines the color of the leaf blocks at certain temperatures and rainfalls.

Watercolor

A .png from the minecraft files that determines the color of the water at certain temperatures and rainfalls. (This was found in the source and not yet implemented into the game.)

Biome types may be easily distinguished by the differentiating grass and leaf colors in conjunction with the kind of blocks present, like cacti in deserts and pine trees in tundras. They are randomly created during the generation of the world and are affected by the seeds.

There were 13 biome types in 1.7; 10 in the overworld, 1 in the nether, and 2 unused ones that are in the code but aren't encountered in normal play.

A fourteenth, unnamed biome, which will include the upcoming huge mushrooms, will be added to the overworld in 1.8, along with a true swampland biome, mountain biome and ocean biome. Post 1.8, biomes will often be separated by a river. Notch has stated that a new rainforest biome (or changes to the current one), as well as volcanoes (either as a biome or natural feature) are a possibility.

Biome Characteristics Image
Rain Forest A biome with many trees and lakes. Some trees may also have leaves extending to the ground, covering the entire trunk. Has a 33% chance to create branched trees, compared to the usual 10%. Rain forests have lots of tall grass as well as ferns (living shrubs) that are found almost exclusively in rain forests. Rainforest
Swampland A biome with many small pools. Stalks of Sugar Cane are commonly found. Added in 1.8, Vines now grow on all trees in this biome and trees can be found growing out of 1 block deep water. Mushrooms are very commonly found growing under trees. File:Swamp biome.jpg
Seasonal Forest Seasonal forests are wetter than forests and are usually found between forests and rain forests. Ferns can be found in seasonal forests but they are very rare. SeasonalForest
Forest A biome with many trees and a fair amount of tall grass. Wolves are also found on this biome more commonly than others. Forest
Mushroom Forest A biome featuring many Huge Mushrooms. According to Notch, it will be added latter to the game. (Picture unavailable; content not yet released)
Mountain A highly mountainous biome with dull grey-blue grass, added in the 1.8 Adventure Update. Prior to this update, mountains were found in all type of biomes, but now are very rare outside this type of land. Mountain Biome
Savanna A biome with mostly flat terrain, almost no trees, and dull colored grass. Savanna
Shrubland A biome with some trees and dull colored grass. Usually found on the fringe between forest and savanna. Shrubland
Taiga A snowy biome composed of mostly mountainous terrain and very few tall grass. Ice, spruce and pine trees can be found in this region. Wolves also appear more commonly on this biome than others. Snow is a common weather in taiga biomes, though in 1.8 pre-release Taiga biomes can generate without ice and/or snow (bug?)

In 1.8, Notch also said this biome would be left out until 1.9, but it only concerns the snow weather and snow layers as the other common features of this type of land can still be generated.

Taiga
Desert A biome consisting mostly of sand, dead shrubs and cacti. Trees do not generate in deserts unless the player brings in dirt. No rain occurs in this biome. Desert
Plains A very flat biome with a very large amount of tall grass (more than in any other type of land). The occasional trees do exist, though very rarely. Plains
Tundra Snowy, barren terrain with very few trees. The occasional trees do exist, though very rarely. Ice can be found over water. Snow is a common weather in tundras.

In 1.8, Notch also said this biome would be left out until 1.9. This is because snow was causing problems with the new biome generator.

Tundra

Biome Screen-shots

The above screenshots were made by editing code in Minecraft's java files, creating worlds made up of only one Biome. This was done consecutively with each Biome type and their screen-shots are collated here. The original topic is on the Minecraft forum, here.

Example of Biomes

Ingame example of Biomes (Unedited Code)

Difficulty

It can be difficult to play if one starts in the middle of a biome with no trees, such as the desert, ocean, savana, or tundra.

Remaining Work

Remaining work on biomes include variable elevations in certain biomes (flat elevation in desert biomes, etc.) in addition to improving the border between arctic and tropical biomes.

Trivia

Oceanbiome

A screenshot of the Ocean biome in Minecraft 1.8 Prerelease 2

  • Notch is going to add new biomes in 1.8, one featuring Huge mushrooms.[1] Others include a Swamp Biome[2], a Mountain Biome (called "Extreme Hills" in the code), an Ocean biome, and a Plains Biome.
  • Biomes will also be expanded in size in the 1.8 update.

References

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