Biosphere Worlds – Issac Edition

Generates the Overworld as floating glass biospheres surrounded by void. Each sphere is a self-contained world with its own biomes, terrain, ores and structures, and nothing generates outside of them.

This is a fork of NeoBiosphere by mlus (original source). It keeps the original concept and base code, and adds fixes and features so that biomes, structures and locate commands respect the spheres. Credit for the original idea goes to mlus.

Differences from the original

• Opt-in world preset. The biosphere terrain only applies when you select "Biospheres - Issac Edition" on the Create World screen. The vanilla presets (Overworld, Large Biomes, Amplified) are no longer overridden, and the mod does nothing in worlds that do not use the preset.
• Void outside the spheres. The preset uses a vanilla multi-noise biome source and the mod turns everything outside the spheres into minecraft:the_void.
• Biome mods. Because the biome source stays a vanilla one, mods that add biomes through TerraBlender can add them inside the spheres. Tested with TerraBlender 4.1.0.8 and Biomes O' Plenty 21.1.0.14. Other biome mods have not been verified. See Compatibility.
• Locate and compasses. /locate biome and mods that query biomes only find biomes that exist inside spheres.
• Structures inside spheres. Structures no longer generate in mid-air outside. Controlled by restrict_structures_to_spheres and structure_edge_margin.
• Mining satellites. Small elevated spheres next to the main ones, with a magma-protected mineral core. See below.
• Optional edge ocean. Water can reach the glass instead of land pressed against the shell.
• Bedrock modes. Keep the bedrock floor, remove it, or add a bedrock lining under the glass.
• Optional flat cap. Spheres that do not fit under the build limit can be closed with a flat cap.
• Debug option debug_biome_lookups to log biome lookups outside spheres.

Mining satellites

With satellites_enabled on, each main sphere can have up to satellites_max_count small spheres floating above it, in diagonal positions, so you have to build a path to reach them. Each satellite has four layers:

1. Glass shell (the same block as its main sphere).
2. A thin stone body.
3. A continuous layer of magma blocks. Magma burns you if you walk on it without sneaking.
4. A core of stone mixed with a single ore, chosen per satellite.

The ore is picked from the vanilla ores plus the ores added by other mods, found through the #c:ores_in_ground/stone block tag. You can exclude or include blocks with satellites_excluded_ores and satellites_included_ores. Modded ores use a default weight and density that you can change.

Satellites are full spheres with a void interior: no mobs, no structures, no vegetation. They have no flat cap, bedrock lining or edge ocean.

Placement is deterministic and does not depend on chunk order. A satellite that does not fit (world height, grid cell or other spheres) is simply left out. With the default center_y of 62, satellites only fit when the main sphere radius is below roughly 200 to 300 blocks. Very small satellites (radius of 6 or less) only get the shell and the stone body.

Inherited features

• Grid-aligned spheres with a deterministic layout
• Per-sphere size and shell block, picked from configurable lists
• Optional upper-hemisphere mode
• Optional bridges between spheres
• Configurable radius, minimum radius, spacing, center height and shell block

Installation

1. Install NeoForge for Minecraft 1.21.1.
2. Put the mod jar in your mods folder.
3. Create a new world and select "Biospheres - Issac Edition".

Chunks that were already generated keep their old biomes and structures, so use a new world. On servers, use the same jar and config on both sides.

Configuration

Config file: config/BiosphereWorlds.toml

Generation options only affect newly generated chunks, so change them before creating a world. Changing them in an existing world can leave visible seams. Changes to the ore lists or to the installed mods apply when the world is reopened or after /reload, and only to new chunks. A satellite that was partly generated before the change can end up with more than one ore.

Each sphere gets its own radius between min_radius and radius. Keep spacing greater than twice radius: with a lower value, neighboring spheres can overlap, and the terrain of a large sphere may be cut at the edges of its grid cell.

The world runs from Y=-64 to Y=320. With the default center_y of 62:

• A sphere reaches the bedrock floor if its radius is at least 126. The bigger the sphere, the wider its flat bedrock plate.
• A sphere is cut off by the build limit, and open at the top, if its radius is above 258. This works well with airships. close_open_top closes it.
• With the default radius of 128, every sphere touches bedrock and none is open at the top.

In general, the bottom reaches bedrock when center_y - radius <= -64, and the top is open when center_y + radius > 320. Spheres that do not reach bedrock are closed floating islands.

bedrock_mode = none breaks the pumpjack from Create Diesel Generators, which needs bedrock (or a block tagged as an oil deposit) to work. With the edge ocean enabled, structures that start near the glass can end up underwater: raise structure_edge_margin to keep them further from the edge.

Compatibility

Minecraft 1.21.1, NeoForge 21.1.216 or newer, Java 21.

Biome mods: mods that add biomes through TerraBlender work inside the spheres in new worlds. Verified with TerraBlender 4.1.0.8 and Biomes O' Plenty 21.1.0.14. Other biome mods have not been tested, so nothing else is marked as compatible. Worlds created with earlier versions keep the old biome source, so they will not get those biomes.

Known conflicts: mods or datapacks that replace or modify the biosphereworlds:biospheres noise settings or world preset, and mods that heavily alter Carver, Aquifer or ChunkGenerator pipelines.

Planned

• Datapack support for defining sphere types without writing code.

Ideas under consideration

• Groups of spheres arranged like a small solar system.
• A Forge 1.20.1 version, depending on interest.

Source and license

Licensed under GPL-3.0. Original copyright notices are preserved.

• Source code: https://github.com/IssacInzunza/Biosphere-Mod---Issac-Edition
• Bug reports: https://github.com/IssacInzunza/Biosphere-Mod---Issac-Edition/issues
• Original project: https://github.com/mlus-asuka/NeoBiosphere