[MOD 0.14] Alien Biomes

[Earendel]

My main suspicion is that the increased range of decoratives is causing the problem, so it would be really useful if someone could confirm that the do decoratives display option fixes things. (I can't test it myself because I'm not getting the stutter.)

If it is that then the problem is either the decorative density, or the range of decorative textures that need to be loaded into memory.

If it's the density then I can probably add a desnsity multiplier setting so you can reduce it.

If it's the number of textures then maybe I can do something with fewer textures but have them tinted to replace the lost ones.

My immediate plans are to do some more work on the terrain regeneration script so that people can update the terrain after they make settings changes.

Once that is working at an acceptable level, i'm going to be adding settings that let you remove terrain tiles (and associated decoratives) on startup, so that should help the 255 limit and number of textures problems. Basically the more terrains you remove using that method, the more "lite" the mod becomes performance wise.

[Earendel]

v0.3.9 Preview Build: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oTYmE ... VwVHEJa2PS

I've made some big upgrades to the terrain regeneration. I did end up including a bit of wvlad's code for the entity copying.
The main changes are:

• If a building would end up underwater then landfill gets placed underneath so the building is safe.
• Rails are protected even if they aren't 'owned' by a player force.
• Trees are regenerated so you don't get hard lines of tree colour change. Trees aren't placed too close to existing structures.
• Concrete and other 'built' tiles are protected. The tile won't be replaced and won't allow regenreated trees to spawn.
• Pollution is re-applied to deleted chunks.

Unfortunately I can't get cliffs to respawn properly in populated chunks, so only the deleted chunks will get new cliffs.

There are now mod control settings for all the biome types. These can completely remove the tile type, but also if a decorative is limited to certain biomes and all of those biomes are removed then the decorative is removed too, so the game loads less textures.

Testers Wanted
The changes affect map generation so I don't want to upload it to the mod portal until a few more people have tested it because I don't want to risk breaking people's saves. Please test unchecking some of the "Include BiomeName" options in mod options, loading an existing map, regenerating the terrain, and verifying that it doesn't make a horrbile mess of everything. It's probably best not to try on huge maps just because it can take so long for all the deleted chunks to fully regenerate. Also it probably goes without saying, but don't save over your old save.

Edit: Oops, wrong link to an older version

[WladySpb]

I'm download latest version 0.3.9, but getting some lags anymore. If i walk on empty map, and going to dark border, when new tile exploring, i'm getting half-second freeze. On other places, FPS periodicaly drops to 30-50. On this test, i'm disable all other mods, and start new game, but lags allways continies...
I'm really sad, because this mod so pretty, and i wait for solution...

[Djohaal]

My main suspicion is that the increased range of decoratives is causing the problem, so it would be really useful if someone could confirm that the do decoratives display option fixes things. (I can't test it myself because I'm not getting the stutter.)

If it is that then the problem is either the decorative density, or the range of decorative textures that need to be loaded into memory.

If it's the density then I can probably add a desnsity multiplier setting so you can reduce it.

If it's the number of textures then maybe I can do something with fewer textures but have them tinted to replace the lost ones.

My immediate plans are to do some more work on the terrain regeneration script so that people can update the terrain after they make settings changes.

Once that is working at an acceptable level, i'm going to be adding settings that let you remove terrain tiles (and associated decoratives) on startup, so that should help the 255 limit and number of textures problems. Basically the more terrains you remove using that method, the more "lite" the mod becomes performance wise.

I tested on the same seed, with or without decoratives the stutter occoured while running around a generated area.

[FuryoftheStars]

Hi, I'm reporting this here just for awareness. I'm fairly sure the issue isn't with your mod itself. I'm going to be posting the below at the other two mods as well:

I'm not sure where the problems is, but there appears to be a conflict between FARL, Dectorio, and Alien Biomes. When FARL is used in maintenance mode for laying tracks (regardless if there were pre-existing tracks or not), it will "rip up" the ground tiles in front of it, leaving only grass in its wake and throwing the Dectorio landscaping tiles of the equivalent type the ground used to be into its cargo wagons.

The FARL will not do this with either Alien Biomes or Decotrio disabled.

https://imgur.com/a/vvlCI

[Earendel]

Hi, I'm reporting this here just for awareness. I'm fairly sure the issue isn't with your mod itself. I'm going to be posting the below at the other two mods as well:

I'm not sure where the problems is, but there appears to be a conflict between FARL, Dectorio, and Alien Biomes. When FARL is used in maintenance mode for laying tracks (regardless if there were pre-existing tracks or not), it will "rip up" the ground tiles in front of it, leaving only grass in its wake and throwing the Dectorio landscaping tiles of the equivalent type the ground used to be into its cargo wagons.

The FARL will not do this with either Alien Biomes or Decotrio disabled.

https://imgur.com/a/vvlCI

I think Dectorio makes items that allow you to place natural landscape tiles for decorative purposes, but that also makes it possible to pick up those tiles. FARL is then probably does something with 'minable' tiles, which all natural ones then are... and then weirdness.

My suggestion is that FARL excludes tiles that have an autoplace setting.

[Wixo]

Loaded an old save with your new importer. A cleared biter nest respawned very close, overrunning my base. I am on a marathon trainworld (I think that changes biter spawns). Some bricks without any buildings nearby were overridden (one patch contained the nest). Otherwise, everything looks very good. A large cluster of rocks spawned around a mining outpost for a very cool effect (plus, no miners were lost).

[Earendel]

Loaded an old save with your new importer. A cleared biter nest respawned very close, overrunning my base. I am on a marathon trainworld (I think that changes biter spawns). Some bricks without any buildings nearby were overridden (one patch contained the nest). Otherwise, everything looks very good. A large cluster of rocks spawned around a mining outpost for a very cool effect (plus, no miners were lost).

If you can send me the game save I'll fix the stone brick issue and try to figure out some why new biters are spawning in your base.

[Djohaal]

So more news on the "unexplainable stutters", I started to experience them again after adding all the set of NPUtils to my already large compilation. No alien biomes involved. I'm suspicious it might actually be a raw performance issue with factorio's engine due to the massive ammount of sprites loaded at a given moment.

[Earendel]

In that case I'm probably going to have to transition to using tinted decoratives instead of unique textures for each type. It won't look as good but hopefully that will solve the problem.

[hitzu]

@Earendel, I really adore your mod. It's so beautiful and gives a lot of variety to the landscape. And what I really appreciate is that it makes a game prettier. Unlike some players, I try not to cover large areas with stone or concrete, but if I do, I try to incorporate a little bit of nature between paved zones. And with the process of rebuilding, I lose the remaining parts of the greenery. What mods could you recommend that use your trees and decoratives to plant them manually to restore the greenery? Most of them use the old Factorio assets and don't fit into your biomes.

[Djohaal]

In that case I'm probably going to have to transition to using tinted decoratives instead of unique textures for each type. It won't look as good but hopefully that will solve the problem.

While this might mean double the work, but a "lite" version of alien biomes could be made for users with large atlas usage, while keeping a full version for people who want the full experience. Alien Biomes is a beautiful mod.

[steinio]

Hi,

i'm sorry to abondone this mod due the excessive tile number.

As i want to use other decorative mods i must decide.

[Cisz]

Alien Biomes stopped working for me in 0.16.31.

Edit: And works again in 0.16.32.

[Omnifarious]

I'm noticing something odd... pollution absorption by the landscape seems significantly greater than vanilla. I started my game with Alien Biomes enabled. I have a power generation facility with 160 steam engines and 80 boilers, and while they're bright red, the pollution drops off much more quickly than I seem to remember from other maps I've played. Am I seeing things? If it matters, I'm on the very latest 0.16. I think 0.16.35 right now.

BTW, thanks a lot for this mod. I've never thought I was much for caring too much about the visual aspects of a game (I've played Nethack and loved it), but the added variety is adding to the appeal of the game for me in a subtle way.

[Ciber]

This mod looks really fun, but I play on a laptop and it really lowers my fps even at minimal gfx settings. Any chance of a lite version?

[npuldon]

First off. Love this mod!

The second point, at game start when fully zoomed out this mod changes my FPS from 60 (when zoomed in) to ~18(when fully zoomed out, ~30FPS when half way zoomed). I have done testing and it is this mod specifically that is giving me FPS issues at the game start. It looks like this mod is 90mb while all other mods are either very small (less than 1mb) or 10-30MB for content overhaul mods like (Bobs, Angels, Pyanondon).

Comp specs: 8GB of DDR3 ram, AMD Fx-8350, AMD R9 270 2GB, SSD: SS 840 Pro
Graphics Settings (non-high Res): https://imgur.com/a/NULuQ3I

1) Can anything be done about this outside of deleting the mod (which would be a big shame :/)?
2) Can I change any of the graphics settings to specifically help with the issue above?

Thanks!

[PantherX]

There seems to be an issue with flooring layers in Alien Biomes. I've done a bit of investigating and it seems to be that because Alien Biomes is renumbering all the flooring layers the game isn't drawing the tile transition borders correctly (for instance, the decorative borders around hazard concrete tiles).

The problem seems to arise because the base game expects all the 'base' variants (like concrete) to be on the same layer, and then all the decorative variants (like hazard concrete) to be on another layer that is a defined interval away. It gets this interval from the transition_overlay_layer_offset value to determine the correct layering when drawing the decorative borders. Alien Biomes is splitting all these variants out to their own individual layer (for instance, hazard-left is on it's own layer separate from hazard-right) but it is not adjusting the transition_overlay_layer_offset values of these tiles to compensate for the new difference in the layer numbers. The game therefore renders the borders incorrectly, or sometimes omits them entirely. This issue is only compounded when other mods that add flooring tiles are used as the layer numbers are increasingly spread out.

The mod therefore needs to calculate the correct offset values when it renumbers the tile layers so that the game knows where to draw the transition layers or, alternatively, it could have some test included that picks a new layer number based upon the tile's original layer to make sure that all the similar tile variants are grouped together on the same layer (above all the biome tiles) rather than incrementing numbers so that the base game behaviour still works without needing to recalculate the offsets. Something like new_tile_layer = original_tile_layer + 180 for any flooring tiles.

I hope my explanation makes sense. I can provide more info if needed.

[thereaverofdarkness]

I am experiencing a problem in which I cannot escape the biome I started in. No matter how far I search, all I find is snow, with the occasional small bit of gray dirt. I did not change any terrain sizes away from default when I created the map. It was created in Factorio version 16.36, the version I am currently playing. All terrain types are listed as frequency normal and size medium. I'm using Alien Biomes version 0.3.8.

Here's my map exchange string:
>>>eNptUr9rFEEUnne7Z3KJXlJcI0hIce2pqKXcro0W+gfEcm937hzc
21lnd++4WMQigoU/QGy0MYVgIdhZiE0gKApGAxZiFwmCoEIwoI1wzsz
OzG6OPJjH931vdt573x1C86iJKgjsE7ZPvdCyrBmfxjFmLcow2FbNZ1
mAW5SEFduqB4SlLS/rYNYjERaXpdLBpFdioedfLRijw8gwn2Gvz1n+U
pAl6YjRRHxbk0qP4REns5LEGYtDUZuWlOHA4NSLzLUBoSFOTYvhFZLK
YXCE+6NWx0swgHWoy+gyloP0mJckfMpM3JrNGe8ri4r2vWxQqtKQSHp
YUeZFvRI3c9Zyng86l5M0Y9cySpLSfTOw4iMchnQodiOMRsr4euJFwX
6vpWK8zpn2Omfaa8mM15Lt81oq2mtJCq8lVV5LrLyWuPBaUu11NUlph
G0OUm5kIq5n3CSS9cU2/J9zZEBDnwu+9r1uBG39nFGMv4VkxkPw4fPr
zRurC0ic8Qo6OR6Lw9EWQvLwAARc0FH1Q9LtIrR4ThwAuN54fuHr8gM
H8vpxV4FdpSy9Usr2TQWWnilwa0MB97EGKxrcc+G0jD2nAHmvlL+smk
y7BciLq6IIcOfXi7W/b9bbsPf0I9yPYwd+/P536Xz3W5sXp8RWFZMeP
RTxUm+A9Jvbjip9cWDzvYifDlTFFw2R1i9yA92dGoL5Oqdrt3laPIb0
aG39TMOFrow/epMdDT45k3s0XTgrHl8Q6a1IsqGZDBS87OaFo0WVf3o
KldsHxXLvdMeNUuuJGZp6hjPuAStMKM2S8TOiT2DSd8sMwR3cmtKM/7
YWKmLXuZvAk//ggzuY<<<

Here's a screenshot of my explored map:


I've attached my save file.

[npuldon]

I am experiencing a problem in which I cannot escape the biome I started in. No matter how far I search, all I find is snow, with the occasional small bit of gray dirt. I did not change any terrain sizes away from default when I created the map. It was created in Factorio version 16.36, the version I am currently playing. All terrain types are listed as frequency normal and size medium. I'm using Alien Biomes version 0.3.8.

Here's my map exchange string:
>>>eNptUr9rFEEUnne7Z3KJXlJcI0hIce2pqKXcro0W+gfEcm937hzc
21lnd++4WMQigoU/QGy0MYVgIdhZiE0gKApGAxZiFwmCoEIwoI1wzsz
OzG6OPJjH931vdt573x1C86iJKgjsE7ZPvdCyrBmfxjFmLcow2FbNZ1
mAW5SEFduqB4SlLS/rYNYjERaXpdLBpFdioedfLRijw8gwn2Gvz1n+U
pAl6YjRRHxbk0qP4REns5LEGYtDUZuWlOHA4NSLzLUBoSFOTYvhFZLK
YXCE+6NWx0swgHWoy+gyloP0mJckfMpM3JrNGe8ri4r2vWxQqtKQSHp
YUeZFvRI3c9Zyng86l5M0Y9cySpLSfTOw4iMchnQodiOMRsr4euJFwX
6vpWK8zpn2Omfaa8mM15Lt81oq2mtJCq8lVV5LrLyWuPBaUu11NUlph
G0OUm5kIq5n3CSS9cU2/J9zZEBDnwu+9r1uBG39nFGMv4VkxkPw4fPr
zRurC0ic8Qo6OR6Lw9EWQvLwAARc0FH1Q9LtIrR4ThwAuN54fuHr8gM
H8vpxV4FdpSy9Usr2TQWWnilwa0MB97EGKxrcc+G0jD2nAHmvlL+smk
y7BciLq6IIcOfXi7W/b9bbsPf0I9yPYwd+/P536Xz3W5sXp8RWFZMeP
RTxUm+A9Jvbjip9cWDzvYifDlTFFw2R1i9yA92dGoL5Oqdrt3laPIb0
aG39TMOFrow/epMdDT45k3s0XTgrHl8Q6a1IsqGZDBS87OaFo0WVf3o
KldsHxXLvdMeNUuuJGZp6hjPuAStMKM2S8TOiT2DSd8sMwR3cmtKM/7
YWKmLXuZvAk//ggzuY<<<

Here's a screenshot of my explored map:


I've attached my save file.

Yeah, that's a pretty common world gen issue I've seen. Run away overwhelming amounts of frozen world when the starting area is frozen. Sometime I even put the frequency to very low for frozen and I'll get a huge frozen world generated at the preview. Somehow this terrain type does not respect the user settings. not sure why either.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, however, is the crazy FPS drop issue when zoomed out :/ If it were not for that I would probably still use this mod, as would many others.

Cheers