World Gen: Rivers, Blended Biomes & Clean Ocean Separation
• Seth Blakely
manabat dev-log prototype world-generation biomes
Been a busy few weeks splitting my focus, but world generation is coming along strong!
The big shift this cycle was moving away from a full hydrology/precipitation flow system for rivers — as cool as that sounds on paper, the complexity wasn’t paying off yet. Swapped it for smart river noise placement and the results are clean and convincing. Freed up a lot of headspace to tackle the other rough edges that were piling up.
What got done:
- Switched from hydrology/precipitation flow to smart river noise placement — rivers look natural without the simulation overhead
- Blended biomes — transitions between biome zones are now smooth instead of hard-cut
- Smoothed geometry — terrain surface is cleaner and more organic
- Patched geo holes — fixed gaps in the mesh that were slipping through
- (Mostly) fixed jagged edges & artifacts — still a few stragglers, but dramatically improved
- Separated ocean from voxel mesh — water is now a clean plane sitting independently of the terrain, which makes everything look and perform better
Next up: Individual biome elevation, macro slope blending, and adding natural assets — rocks, trees, flora, grass, and biome-specific textures. That’s where the world really starts to feel alive.
Still on track. More soon.