Maintenance script: UtilityBiome wiki

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A '''biome census''' samples an area of the world generator and counts which biomes occur there. It is useful to check a seed before you open a server, to see how big and how common the biomes of a world-generation mod are, and to add hard numbers to a bug report. It reads the world generator only, so no chunks are generated and nobody has to fly there.

There are two ways to run one: the command <code>/ub census</code> and a census at server start.

== The report ==
The first line names the centre, radius and step, the number of samples and how many different biomes were found. Below it comes one line per biome, sorted by share:
{| class="wikitable"
! Part !! Meaning
|-
| Share in % || How much of the sampled area this biome covers.
|-
| Name || The biome as <code>Zone/Tile.Name</code> or <code>Zone/Custom.Name</code>.
|-
| Nearest || Position of the sample of this biome closest to the centre, and its distance in blocks.
|-
| Patches || How many separate patches of this biome were found. Neighbouring samples of the same biome, diagonals included, count as one patch.
|-
| Average / largest width || How wide an average patch and the largest patch are, given as the side of a square of the same area.
|}
Patches at the edge of the area are cut off and count smaller than they are. With a filter, only the matching biomes are listed, but the shares still refer to the whole area.

The number of samples grows quickly: a radius of 2000 with step 32 means about 16,000 samples. For large areas use a larger step.

== /ub census ==
The command samples the default world around a point you choose (by default (0, 0), not your position). The options are listed on [[UtilityBiome:Commands#/ub census|Commands]]. Examples:
* <code>/ub census</code>: 4000 × 4000 blocks around (0, 0), one sample every 32 blocks.
* <code>/ub census --radius 6000 --step 64 --filter BetterBiomes_</code>: a larger area, only the biomes of Better Biomes listed.
* <code>/ub census --x 12000 --z -3000 --radius 1000 --step 16</code>: a detailed look at one region.

== Census at server start ==
Server admins can let Utility Biome run a census automatically once all worlds have loaded. This works without anyone joining. Set the environment variable <code>UTILITYBIOME_CENSUS</code> before starting the server:
<pre>
UTILITYBIOME_CENSUS=radius[:step[:prefix]]
</pre>
* <code>radius</code>: half the side length in blocks (0 or more). Unlike the command, there is no upper limit.
* <code>step</code>: distance between samples, default 32.
* <code>prefix</code>: optional, only biomes whose name starts with it are listed and highlighted.
* The centre is always (0, 0) of the default world.

Example: <code>UTILITYBIOME_CENSUS=4000:32:BetterBiomes_</code>

The result goes to the server log, every line starting with <code>Start-Census:</code>:
* the number of loaded biomes and the ones matching the prefix,
* with a prefix: the matching cave types and ores per zone,
* the full report described above,
* a map image.

=== The census map ===
Utility Biome writes the file <code>census-map.png</code> into the working directory of the server. It has one pixel per sample, north is up, and a cross marks (0, 0). Biomes that match the prefix get strong colours. All other biomes get a muted colour per zone, with Custom biomes such as rivers and mountains a little darker. The log lists which colour belongs to which biome and zone. On the map you can see how big a biome is, what shape it has, and where zone borders, rivers or mountains cut it off.

If the value of the variable cannot be read, the log shows a warning and no census runs.

{{UtilityBiome Nav}}

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Maintenance script: UtilityBiome wiki