You may be wondering what’s the difference between osm-based vegetation and vanilla vegetation.
In short, vanilla vegetation is the default vegetation found in a normal vanilla Minecraft world in the corresponding biomes. Osm-based vegetation places various plants according to real life data, i.e. exactly where they are found on the planet. (of course in simplified form, since there is only a limited number of plants in minecraft).
For the osm-based vegetation there are a handful of custom made layers.
- Deciduous Forest (Oak Trees and Birch Trees)
- Needleleaf Forest (Spruce Trees)
- Jungle (Jungle Trees and some Bamboo)
- Mixed (Oak, Birch, Spruce and Dark Oak Trees) in colder biomes
- Mixed (Acacia Trees in warmer biomes)
- Shrubs (custom object)
- Herbs (Flowers, Grass, etc.)
All these layers are applied to the Global 1-km Consensus Land Cover images from EarthEnv.
Here you can see an comparison of North America.
In the vanilla vegetation (second image), the tree line follows exactly the biomes (first image). Also, the tundra in Minecraft is completly covered with snow, but in reality permanent snow is much less common and can only be found further north.
Here you can see an comparison of Africa.
Again, the vanilla generated jungle (second image) follows exactly the biomes (first image). In the osm-based vegetation, the transition between the biomes is a lot smoother (third image). Also you can see some vegetation in the desert, where Minecraft wouldn’t generate any trees.
