jpli02 / mini-minecraft

mini-minecraft

Features

Multi-threading for real-time terrian generation

• terrain expansion, seeing surrounding 5x5 terrain zones to check if they have set up blocks.
• destory the VBO Data when moving far enough, But the Chunk data is kept,destroy all VBO data when walk too far away for efficiency.
• For the current terrian zone, if no Chunk then generated it If has Chunk but no VBOData inside, fill the VBOData
• last step to fill data and send to GPU
• difficulties: design and code

Procedural generation of terrain using noise functions

• Implemented several noise functions to generate the terrain procedurally, including Perlin, Worley, and FBM.
• Using Perlin Noise with FBM to generate the height of the mountain and the grassland biome.
• Using a Perlin noise with a smoothstep function to interpolate between the two biomes.
• Assign block type according to the generated height.
• Implemented the feature to expand chunks when moving through the border of a zone.

Altering the provided Terrain system to efficiently store and render blocks

• Only create VBO data for block faces that lie on the boundary between an EMPTY block and a filled block.
• Cache the VBO data for each chunk and reuse it when rendering the same chunk.
• Cached VBO is invalidated when Chunk::setBlockAt is called.

Constructing a controllable Player class with simple physics

• Implement for flight mode and non-flight Mode. Support key control with WASDQEF and mouse
• Support collision detection when in non-flight Mode,using grid matching
• Mimic the real world with friction and gravity

Texturing and Texture Animation

• Implemented texture and normal mapping.
• Support texture animation of WATER and LAVA by changing the texture coordinates of the block faces.
• Correct opaque blocks and transparent blocks rendering order.

cave systems

• sampled 3d perlin noise at each block under the 128th layer to determine whether it is in a cave
• tuned noise threshold to make natural and reasonable caves
• make empty blocks under a certain layer of lava
• set up framebuffer and shader programs for posteffects
• programmed post shaders to make visual effects for under water and under lava

Additional Biomes

• Add additional biomes like SNOWPEAK, MUSHLAND, DARKFOREST, OAKFOREST, DESERT
• Using SimplexNoise instead of PerlinNoise to generate weirdness and humidity, and generate height by these two factors
• The biome type is decided by humidity and height, so that each border transition is smooth
• Based on biome type, procedurally place assets additional assets based using probability
• To make biomes and terrains more reasonable, used some rules to make DESERT, and MUSLAND only appear on low height

Procedurally placed assets

• Add additional blocks like CACTUS, MUSHROOM, TREE, LEAF, and other plants
• The structure of the tree and mushroom are pre-defined and procedurally generated on each block
• Different assets are placed on different biome based on different density by using probability
• Different types of trees are generated based on height, birch trees only appear on high altitude

Skybox, Day and Night Cycle

• Implemented a skybox with a day and night cycle, varing lambert shading (light position and hue) based on the sun's position.
• Clouds are randomly generated using a Worley noise displacement of hardcoded color palette.
• Smoothened the transition between day and night.
• Adjusted cornoa coloring order to correctly blend sky color transition.

Inventory and onscreen GUI

• Implemented UI, showing block type and the number of each block
• User can select which type of block they will place by pressing a particular key I fot the UI
• Use left button of mouse to break the block, that block's number will increase by 1.
• Use right button of mouse to place the block, that block's number will decrease by 1.