Terrarium

The Terrarium modification introduces a completely new world type in Minecraft that creates an exact replica of our planet Earth with customizable parameters.

World Creation

To create an Earth world, simply cycle through the "World Type" option when starting a new game. You can immediately begin playing with default settings or customize the world to your preferences by clicking the "Customize" button.

A special configuration menu will open, displaying all available parameters on the left and a world preview on the right.

When any parameter is changed, the preview automatically updates around the selected spawn point, allowing you to evaluate how your world will look.

It's important to note that the default preset is not ready for survival mode—ores and resources are not generated. These features can be activated in the "Survival Properties" section.

Navigation

To travel to any point in the real world, use the geotp command:

It can be used with latitude and longitude coordinates:

• /geotp 27.987746 86.924812

Or with a place name:

• /geotp Mount Everest

Also available is the /geotool command, which provides various tools for world navigation. It includes an interface for displaying your current location and a map for teleporting to new places.

World Height

The standard Minecraft world is limited to a height range of 256 blocks, which is usually insufficient to fully reproduce Earth's terrain! Depending on world scale settings, upper parts may be cut off at the height limit. Fortunately, Terrarium supports the Cubic Chunks mod, which enables worlds with infinite height. If you create a world with Cubic Chunks installed, terrain will no longer be cut off!

Mod Compatibility

Terrarium strives to support world generators from other modifications, but in some cases this support is limited. Custom biomes must be explicitly supported by Terrarium, and currently only Biomes O' Plenty is compatible.

Most modified generators will work with compatibility mode enabled in world settings. However, it's important to understand that most mods expect a standard height range from 0 to 255 with terrain centered at Y=63, so Terrarium shifts modified generators to correctly form the surface. As a result, height ranges for elements like ores become relative to the surface and stop generating below 64 blocks beneath it. Standard Minecraft elements will generate correctly throughout the height range.

Server Setup

Although Terrarium has several client-side features, it operates entirely as a server-side mod. This means players connecting to a server with the mod don't need to install it on their client (including vanilla Minecraft clients!).

However, if a client has installed the mod, they gain access to additional features like the map in /geotool, which are impossible without the modification.

To create an Earth world on a dedicated server, set level-type=terrarium.earth in your server.properties file. This will create a Terrarium world with default settings.

Generator configuration is somewhat complex, so the easiest way to configure parameters is to use the customization screen with the client mod. Install the mod on your client, begin the world creation process as for singleplayer, go to the "Customize" menu, and adjust parameters to your liking. Don't create the world, but click the "..." button next to the world preview. In this window, you'll see a text field from which you can copy world settings to your clipboard. Paste the copied text after the generator-settings= property in your server.properties. Now when starting the server, a Terrarium world with your selected configuration will be generated!

Important Warning

Since Earth is quite large, all necessary data cannot be stored in the mod files (this would take hundreds of gigabytes!). Instead, data is downloaded as needed and cached for subsequent use. Unfortunately, this means the mod requires an internet connection when visiting new places. Depending on internet speed, you may experience delays during data loading. The mod tries to minimize these delays. After loading part of the data, it's cached locally for fast loading in the future. You can also preload world data using the /geotool command.

Data Sources

Terrarium uses a wide range of data sources that have been processed for this modification:

• NASADEM: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
• GEBCO Compilation Group (2019): GEBCO 2019 Grid
• Land Cover: ESA Climate Change Initiative
• SoilGrids: ISRIC World Soil Info
• OpenStreetMap Contributors
• WorldClim
• iNaturalist