Looking for info on A18 biomes.xml modding

[Cernwn]

Are there any overhauls/mods/modlets for A18 that make significant changes to the biomes.xml file? Specifically, I would like to disable/remove splatmaps, make changes to generate biomes and sub-biomes (by elevation and adjacent biomes ONLY), and add in a few new sub-biomes like wetlands/swamps and plains/tundra. I know this has been done in previous alphas, but am unaware of any specifics. PLEASE HELP donate more links or info on this topic, such as these below:

Gipo's Biome Tweaks (by Gipothegip)

Biomes in random gen and custom biomes (by Hoarst)

[OVERHAUL] A16 CLASSIC Style HARDCORE (download removed, by N2n1)

Biome & and RWG Tweak (earlier version of above, download removed, by N2n1)

The Wild Land, random world generation mod for A17 (by Mjrice)

[MODLET] Russian Biomes (by YuriBengala)

[OVERHAUL] HDHQ - Textures/Lighting/Environment (by DUST2DEATH)

If it has already been done elsewhere, why re-invent the wheel? If all that exist are older (incompatible) snippets of code, I will make do with those and see what I can improvise, adapt and overcome.

Just to be perfectly clear, I am NOT looking for info on NitroGen, just modding xml. Thanks in advance.

 

[Cernwn]

More stuff for me to research and compare, when I have time:

[DMT] Legacy Distant Terrain by SphereII (supposedly removes microsplat)

[sDX][OVERHAUL] True-Survival by Spider (old biomes.xml, contains grasslands/plains biome)

[sDX][OVERHAUL] Ravenhearst by JaxTeller718 (test branch biomes.xml for A18.3)

[OVERHAUL] ValMod by Valmar (biomes.xml for A16.1, contains plains biome)

[OVERHAUL] Darkness Falls: They mostly come out at night by KhaineGB (biomes.xml for A18.4)

[OVERHAUL] The Dying Lands by Tin (older "Major overhaul" of biomes.xml)

[MODLET] ComSenMod (download link appears to be broken, biomes.xml for A17.2)

Terrain Modifiers from A=J･Z by Alphado-Jaki (biome-based terrain generation for A17)

PLEASE HELP and contribute some biomes.xml related links.

 

[n2n1]

Adding any other biomes other than the standard ones is extremely difficult in A18.

Working with decorations in existing biomes is possible, but very limited. I would advise you to wait for better times.

The terrain generator is able to generate according to the old rules, but the scale of the numbers has changed greatly. Also, binding to the terrain type will not work without splat maps for now.

 

[Cernwn]

I would advise you to wait for better times.

Spasibo bol'shoye tovarishch! I will take your advice to heart, and see what A19 brings. In meantime, adjusting my expectations to perhaps just adding biome decorations and chip away at sub-biomes, for now.

 

[n2n1]

I am currently making some changes to the subbiomes, but they will not be the basis for future updates, because a lot of restrictions are related to bugs(or temporary restrictions) in the internal code, and perhaps in subsequent Alphas all this will work and look completely different. In fact, this is an empty job now.

 

[convergent]

I have been working on biome overhauls and have posted my struggles previously... am much further along and can tell you that the main issue is the recent switch to the Micro Splat shader. A lot of the entries in biomes.xml are not considered by the new terrain shader. Subbiomes are limited as well - you can make minor changes such as ore distribution but not terrain or large decorations changes.

I do have some tricks - are there specific changes you want to make?

 

[bigstep70]

Im with Cernwn on this fence

Ive reserved all my biome/rwg xml editing to A14, A15 and A16

after that it all went to hell

splatmaps are a joke

I want my RWGmixer back

rwgmixer and biomes was my happy place

nitrogen is ok but Im still at its mercy

I want control !!

 

[bigstep70]

I do have some tricks - are there specific changes you want to make?

post whatever you have my man... we are all interested.

 

[convergent]

Well for one thing if you are want the old biome system back you can use SphereII Legacy Distant Terrain as a DMT mod. You will lose all of the high-resolution textures and distant terrain rendering, however.

You can create sub-biomes but they are hard to call in Xpath as they don't currently have discreet names or tags to identify them in the xml - I have been fully removing the main biomes and re-introducing them with the subbiomes that I want. With the current shader, ground textures cannot be different from the main biome, and the forest will always have forest ground texture no matter what you change. You can put in your own main biomes but the texture will default to stone and not blend with the existing textures.

A better way to distinguish your sub-biomes is to switch the decorations - a patch of brown grass and less trees in the main forest makes a nice change. There is an issue with tree density however, it seems that the main biome decorations rate for trees is overriding the sub-biomes. I.e the only way that I have found to make a sub-biome a clearing is to change the tree blocks to modelentity which impacts performance as they are no longer static and lose the LOD's.

I have changed the pine trees to be far more dense - I changed the bigdecorationradius to 3-4. This does occasionally throw an error as they very rarely attempt to draw in the same space but it doesnt seem to impact the game. It does affect the performance but not as much as you might think since the new occlusion system means it draws less distant objects. My forests are so dense you can't see an enemy until they are on top of you. I personally like the danger of early game, and having to clear land to build.

Any specific questions? I have done an almost complete replacement of the game's xml so I usually don't even remember what I did unless someone asks...

 

[n2n1]

You can spawn some trees as a prefab, this will allow to ignore some of the Spawner 's restrictions regarding distant-terrains.