BetterBiomes:Landforms and Features
Besides biomes and caves, Better Biomes places world features while chunks generate: landforms a height map can't make, small natural details and additions to vanilla biomes. Most of them can be switched off or made rarer in the Configuration; the feature ID is given in brackets.
Chance is the share of matching chunks (32 × 32 blocks) in which the feature is tried.
Landforms
Waterfalls
betterbiomes:waterfall · Zones 1–3 · chance 30%
Waterfalls 3–7 blocks wide pour over natural cliff edges. Behind the edge runs a channel with water sources, and a pool forms at the foot. Waterfalls never appear in or next to ruins and other buildings.
Rock overhangs
betterbiomes:overhang · Zones 1–4 · chance 25%
Wedges of rock that jut 2–5 blocks out over a cliff edge and get narrower towards the bottom. The top keeps the surface of the edge (grass, snow, sand …). Overhangs never block a waterfall.
Sinkholes
Cave type BetterBiomes_Sinkhole · Zone 1, all tiers
Vertical collapse funnels, about 25 blocks wide and 30–40 blocks deep, with a pond at the bottom and sometimes a passage leading off. Trees that would float in the air above a sinkhole or shaft are removed.
Mountain caves, Giant Maws and Crevasses
Caves that open at the surface are described on Caves: Mountain Caves, Giant Maws, Spiked Caves, Crevasses and Ash Pits.
Floating islands
betterbiomes:skylands · only in Gravitation Skylands · chance 70%
Oxbow lakes
betterbiomes:oxbow · rivers of Zone 1 · chance 25% · added after 1.4.0
Crescent-shaped pools in the flat land next to a river, cut off from it by a strip of land. They have a muddy bottom and cattails and reeds on the banks.
Meteor craters
betterbiomes:meteor_crater · vanilla biomes of Zone 4, Tier 4–5 · chance 0.8%
A bowl with a radius of 8–12 blocks and up to 7 blocks deep, with a raised rim of volcanic rock and ash. In the middle lies the meteorite: cooled magma with veins of adamantite ore and, rarely, a voidstone.
Geodes
betterbiomes:geode · vanilla biomes of Zone 2, Tier 2–3, plus Salt Flats and Ember Spires · chance 1%
Half-buried, broken-open rock spheres (radius 5–7) in the desert floor. The shell is made of basalt, calcite and quartzite, and the hollow inside is lined with crystals of one color, standing on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. About one in three geodes holds a gem in the middle.
Rivers and lakes
- Reed belts: reeds and cattails grow just above the water line along the rivers and lakes of Zone 1.
- Duckweed floats on the rivers and lakes of Zone 1.
- Bridges (
betterbiomes:bridge, chance 20%) cross the rivers of Zone 1, Zone 2 Tier 1 and the Zone 3 coast, built from the wood of the zone. Some are intact, some have gaps and missing railings, and of some only the posts are left in the water.
Forests
- Animal trails (
betterbiomes:animal_trail, chance 10%): narrow, winding paths through dense forests. - Animal dens (
betterbiomes:animal_den, chance 5%): small hollows leading into a slope, with bones, twigs and gravel on the floor. In dense forests, on vanilla Zone 1 mountains and in the Pine Fields. - Bird's nests (
betterbiomes:bird_nest, chance 25%) on branches at least three blocks above the ground. - Bee hives (
betterbiomes:bee_hive, chance 8%) hang under branches in vanilla Zone 1 forests and the Redwood Forest. - Fallen logs: fallen trees and mushroom logs in the vanilla forests of Zone 1, Tier 3, and fallen fir trunks in the green conifer forests of Zone 3.
- Forest edges: the forests of Better Biomes thin out towards their edges instead of ending abruptly, and the woodland biomes have open clearings with flowers.
- "Dense forests" here means the vanilla forests of Zone 1, the Better Biomes forests and Jungle of Zone 1, and the fir, redwood and cedar forests of Zone 3.
Small nature features
| Feature | ID | Where | Chance | Added |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hollow fallen giant logs | betterbiomes:hollow_log, …_maple, …_fir |
Old Growth Woods, Maple Woods, Autumn Taiga | 8% | after 1.4.0 |
| Fairy rings of mushrooms with a glowing mushroom in the middle | betterbiomes:fairy_ring |
Prism Meadow, Mystic Grove, Meadow | 6% | after 1.4.0 |
| Crystal clusters | betterbiomes:crystal_cluster (purple), …_cyan |
Crystal Chasm, Glowing Shimmer | 12% | after 1.4.0 |
| Basalt columns | betterbiomes:basalt_columns |
Volcano | 10% | after 1.4.0 |
| Coal in boulders | betterbiomes:coal_rocks |
all of Zone 1 | 25% | 1.1.0 |
| Pride rocks | – | vanilla savannas of Zone 2, Tier 1 | – | 1.1.0 or earlier |
Biome-specific features such as the salt pools of the Salt Flats, the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia or the ice around the trees of the Rimebound Woods are described with their biome. The full list of feature IDs is on Configuration.