Worldgen Update: Terrain, Structures, LOD, and Voxy Support

Improvements

• Significantly improved cave generation.
• Fixed missing structures in some areas (e.g., Ancient Cities, Ocean Monuments).
• Improved biome transitions for a more natural look.
• Major improvements to surface decoration (will continue to be refined over time).
• Initial mitigation for terrain holes caused by bad DEM source data (some locations may still have issues).

New Features

• ArcticDEM 2m (Optional DEM Provider)

  • Added ArcticDEM 2m as an additional (optional) DEM provider.
  • Works only in Arctic regions. Coverage: https://www.pgc.umn.edu/data/arcticdem/
  • Outside supported areas, Tellus falls back to Terrarium DEM tiles.

• Faster LOD Render Option (WIP)

  • Added a new faster LOD render mode (work in progress).
  • Less accurate for now, but may replace the current fast LODs if detail can be preserved without affecting generation speed.

• Voxy Compatibility

  • Added Voxy to compatibility settings.
  • Enables Tellus to generate chunks for Voxy to ingest and render far distances without needing to explore chunks first.
  • Tracks player movement to keep generating new chunks automatically.
  • Note: Voxy requires full chunk data, so terrain generation is much slower than with Distant Horizons, but distant terrain quality is generally better.

Compatibility & Behavior

• If Distant Horizons or Voxy is not installed, related options will be disabled in the config screen.
• Added a warning if both mods are installed:
  • Tellus will prioritize Distant Horizons
  • Tellus will disable Voxy terrain generation

Configuration Changes

• Height Offset can now go down to -2000 for taller mountains and more dramatic terrain (at the cost of reduced ocean depth).
• Added two new buttons to the config screen:
  • Restore Defaults
  • Select Preset (not enabled yet)
• Settings are now saved when exiting the world config screen.

Work in Progress

• OpenStreetMap features
  • Streets, buildings, and more accurate water bodies in some areas.
  • Chunk generation speed may be heavily impacted; optimization is ongoing.
• Better server-side support.
• NeoForge support.
• Backports to other versions (current target: 1.21.1) and preparation for the upcoming Minecraft 26.1 update.