Minecraft terrain generation in a nutshell

In the Caves & Cliffs update we radically changed Minecraft terrain generation, rewriting large parts of it from the ground up. This video summarizes how this actually works, how simple math and code can be used to generate interesting, beautiful, and dramatic terrain.

00:00 Intro
1:14 Size
3:11 Procedural terrain generation
8:47 Perlin noise
13:04 Terrain shaping
17:37 3d noise
20:10 Cave generation
21:27 Biomes
25:13 Wrapup

[cubfan]

Great video Henrik! Really cool to see a bit about how things work behind the scenes of the terrain generation.

[MysteryOre]

This is so fascinating! A comprehensive yet straightforward explanation of how terrain generation works. Thank you for making this video, Henrik! :)

[earomc]

so cool having passionate developers at this game. So passionate that they make videos talking about what they do in their free time. I really appreciate your work. I watched the video from start to finish!

[Vextrove]

If I'm not mistaken, Mr Henrik uploaded this video in his free time, pretty close to midnight. This is not part of his job/him getting paid to do it.
He did it because he wanted to.

I really appreciate this video!!

[Mysda_]

About 1 or 2 years ago I made my first game for a gamejam, it was a 2d digging game. So I started playing with perlin noise and well the obvious thing is to find out that you can do cheese cave.
Some weeks after I had an Epiphany when I came up with the spaghetti cave idea, it was so much more possibilities with the same concept!
I trully understand how fascinating terrain generation can be, and I love seeing a clean explaination like this.

[money_hyde]

Thanks for the amazing video! I tried replicating this myself to some extent for fun in Unity, it’s surprisingly easy to stuff some meshes into a grid and use Perlin noise like he mentioned to specify if they’re solid blocks or air blocks.

It starts to get seriously confusing after that though, especially accounting for multiple sets of noise, the 3d noise as well, not to mention how quickly performance gets really bad. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around all of it. Makes me appreciate it all the more!

[henryash]

When I first found Minecraft, I was too young to even begin to imagine how a Minecraft world worked.
I think half of the magic for me at that age was the inability to understand how every world was different, stretched millions of blocks wide (enough to be labelled "infinite", another bewildering concept) and on top of that how a computer could put me inside of it and allow me to make it my own.
As I have become more knowledgeable of the general possibilities of computer science and programming, this aspect of the game has gradually charmed me less and less, however the nostalgia will forever remain with me. I hope that Minecraft continues to mystify new players with world generation, I also hope that I can keep hold of some of that magic that once baffled my 8 year old self.

[stardustlabs]

Henrik you are an absolute math & worldgen genius. This video is a really excellent explanation of worldgen, definitely watch all the way through!!!

[cubicmetre]

As one of those people who makes videos about the crazy stuff you can do by playing the game, I find it really interesting how much more technical things are when you look at the games development. People say they cannot begin to comprehend the kind of stuff I make through technical gameplay. But I cannot fathom how many parameters and linear algebra are needed to perfectly tweak a procedural terrain generation algorithm to produce realistic terrain.

[Goldrobin]

Thank you for the video! I love the new update, the new terrain generation looks so good!! It's so much fun building in a world where every part of it looks beautiful! (Btw, would love to see more dev commentary in the future, great video!) :)

[Ponteiiro]

Thanks for the video Henrik, after watching some videos of people trying to replicate the minecraft generation, it's interesting to see what actually happens, good job improving it 😎

[numeromojeangering]

I love the fly that passes by at 0:13.

[oglothenerd]

POV: Me learning the secrets of Minecraft so I can make my game better.

[CorneliusThroatworthy]

haven't finished watching the video, but I've really enjoyed the visual demonstrations of what terrain would look like with each version of the pseudo-code - when y'all first introduced continentalness, erosion, temperature & peaks-&-valleys as parameters, I found it hard to keep track of how the parameters interacted, and I couldn't quite get why y'all were bothering with the parameters in the first place - this video has helped me understand that quite a bit better

and btw I was moved to write a comment because I loved the comparison you made between the terrain generation y'all have been working on, and Slartibartfast's award-winning fjords-of-Norway! a beauty of a throwback :D

[IbanPlay]

Despite already grasping the principles of using combined gradient noises for world generation this was still super entertaining and taught me a lot of neat stuff, like how 3D noise is used in combination with the squishing factor! I'd love to see more videos like this where aspects of minecraft's code are explained in this format

[rooodis]

The new biome algorithm works so well. Recently in my survival world I needed to find a badlands, so I just followed a savannah until I reached one. On the contrary I needed ice, so I followed a mountain range and found an ice spikes and icebergs biome. Didn’t have to use any external tools at all!

[wyll_]

PLEASE believe I’m gonna watch this entire 30 min video. Please more dev commentary 🙏

[yashkhd]

The amount of cocepts you introduced in this just one video is worth noting. This is one of the best tech video explanation I came across. Big Thanks...hope to see more such videos in future.

[nomadshiba]

finally a video explaining how to generate realistic terrain and goes beyond just basics
fun begins after this 12:52

[ChaonicMew]

Honestly, that's the kind of content I'd love to see on the Minecraft youtube channel.
Technical breakdowns of how things work that take you all the way from not knowing anything to having a really good idea of how something works.
I'd like to see that way more often, as it might demystify stuff for people who are looking into modding, so they don't bite off way more than they can chew and give up prematurely.