Terra Vita

Terra Vita replaces vanilla world generation with a model based on real Earth physics, and brings the world to life: plants and animals are born, grow, reproduce and die, and the climate changes with the seasons.

– Plate tectonics: continental and oceanic plates, collisions (Himalaya-like ranges), Andean arcs with trenches, island arcs, rifts, mid-ocean ridges. The upper world limit is removed: Y from −64 to 2031 (the engine maximum).

– Coastlines, continental shelf, slope and abyss, volcanic island chains above hotspots.

– Rivers and lakes flow downhill and carve valleys; floodplains and river terraces on lowlands.

– Rock by stratigraphy: limestone, sandstone, shales, gneiss, marble, granite, rhyolite, basalt; tilted and folded layers visible in cliffs.

– Caves: karst in limestone and marble, “cheese” chambers, “spaghetti” tunnels, deep caverns.

– Ores by province: coal in sedimentary basins, iron in sedimentary and metamorphic rock, copper near volcanic arcs, gold in mountain belts, diamonds under ancient cratons, sulfur near volcanoes, emeralds high in the mountains.

– Real plains: about a third of the land is flat or gently rolling; mountains only form along plate boundaries.

– Latitude belts, winds, moisture transport, rain shadow behind mountains, cooling with altitude.

– 50 biomes with smooth, patchy transitions instead of sharp borders: cool and warm plains and forests, taiga, savanna, jungle, deserts, badlands, swamps, mountain biomes, volcanic terrain and more.

– Trees (oak, birch, spruce, pine, dark oak, acacia, tropical) go through sprout → sapling → mature tree → old age → death. Mature trees scatter seeds; dead trees turn into dead wood that rots away.

– **Grass and flowers** wither, spread and colonise bare land.

– **Wild animals** have an age, hunger and a lifespan, breed when there is food and room, and migrate with the seasons. Domesticated animals are not part of this system.

– **Seasons:** snow and ice in winter, melting in spring, freezing water, autumn colours on leaves and grass; crops don’t grow in the cold. The southern hemisphere runs in opposite phase.

Limestone, marble, slate, shale, gneiss, rhyolite, rock salt, sulfur ore, peat (burns), leaf litter, dead wood, living trunks and seasonal leaves, saplings. Items: salt and sulfur (gunpowder: sulfur + coal + salt).

Every biome is a real biome of the mod (`terravita:<id>`), so `/locate biome terravita:grove` works. For distant and thin biomes there is a `/tvbiome` command: `list` shows all biomes, `<biome>` gives the nearest coordinates, `<biome> tp` teleports you there. It searches up to 50,000 blocks.

Create World → **World** tab → **World Type → “Terra Vita (real geology)”**.

🔧 Config (`config/terravita-common.toml`): season length, toggles for the life systems, tree density, tree growth and aging speed, animal lifespan and limits.

– Early version: bugs are possible, please report them.

– The terrain is a simplified Earth model, not a scientific simulation. Mountains are very tall and generation is heavier than vanilla.

– The world type is chosen when a world is created: Terra Vita generation cannot be switched on in an existing world, so create a new one.

– Requirements: Minecraft 1.21.1, NeoForge 21.1.x, Java 21.