Okay, this warrants some explanation.
RWG, and the changes that were made.
Old.
RWG would be made, and all of the data would be put in the save folder, and as you explored chunks, "region" files would be created. The calculations were done as new chunks were loaded, so the game didn't know that it would be say, a forest biome with an ore cluster
until you entered the new chunk.
New.
Rwg creates a world. A height map (DTM), splatmap images (biomes) and a prefabs.xml,
just like Navezgane uses. The files are stored in the game folder, under data/worlds, and are NOT AFFECTED BY SAVE GAMES. They simply "exist", like a Nav map does.
Now, when the user enters a new chunk, the game already KNOWS what data to expect, so creates the region files faster.
THE GOOD NEWS IS:
Because the map is literally a DTM file (grey scaled height map file) you could
literally load mars and use it as a map. Like, it's been done.
You can also use an image edting program to CREATE YOUR OWN MAP. You can specify which biomes go where by editing the splat map. You can put specific prefabs by telling the prefab.xml where to put them. You can SPECIFY SPAWN POINTS. Where water goes. Roads. Radiation. Entities. Spawners.
So, although this is the first iteration (although I think it's rwg v4.0) of this method, can you start to see the potential now?
Look familiar?
...that's nav's biome mapping.
Want some snow in the south? Edit that .png file, throw in some white at the very bottom. Save the file. Then load the map.
That easy.