Some semi-random thoughts on terrain generation

[NiLSPACE]

yea lakes can't wait

[xoft]

It's taking a bit longer than anticipated, because the underlying framework isn't working properly
cChunkDesc's blockarea writing was buggy, is only basic, there's no merging, ...

I'm also unhappy about cChunkDesc and cBlockArea having a lot of similar code, but being unable to share it between them. I was considering making the cChunkDesc actually a direct descendant of cBlockArea. This would have the advantage of having all cBlockArea functions accessible in cChunkDesc, thus only one implementation of merging. But there's also the disadvantage of exporting some functions that should stay internal, such as the cBlockArea::Create() function, that should definitely not be accessible from cChunkDesc. Even if I managed to hide it in C++, ToLua would probably export it anyway.
Another approach would be to encapsulate the cBlockArea as a member of cChunkDesc, with cChunkDesc's functions being only wrappers calling the cBlockArea's functions. This could work better, but needs a wrapper function for everything.

[xoft]

It seems my lakes are working, but there's a slight problem with them combining with the BottomLava finisher. A lake may generate under the lava level, which means it will have water on the bottom, but then the BottomLava finisher fills the air above water with lava. Weird.

Oooh, and you definitely want to put Trees StructureGen *after* the Lakes. Otherwise the lakes are allowed to start in treetops

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And there're way too many lakes, need to add a limiter.

[xoft]

Limiters done, height distribution fixed... I think the lakes are ready to be tested so go grab rev 1288 and enjoy.

[NiLSPACE]

wow those lakes are awsome. i found a lake that was making a waterfall into another lake

[xoft]

Did you also notice any generator speedup in re 1289? I'm particularly proud of that one, it gave me 25 % more chunks per second.

Even better news is, while implementing the lakes I opened up the possibility to easily merge BlockAreas into ChunkDesc, so we can have plugins that enhance the generated world by content that has been prepared, such as from .schematic files.

[NiLSPACE]

yes i normaly have about 90-100 chunks but now i had 125

[bearbin]

Awesome 25% speedup should be much better for people with low end servers (like raspis or android).

[xoft]

I just checked with my RasPi (stock configuration), it generates 7.9 chunks per second, and about 10 chunks per second get lit. Not much, but should be barely usable.

[ThuGie]

Wouldnt it be possibly for raspi to set a larger range of chunks to be generated @ first boot.
After that it should run smooth right ? as if i recall you can already set max generation level.
Set it to load all on boot. might take a bit. but after that all hard work is done right ?