Map Generation Algorithms for Minecraft Clone

Posted by Danjen on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Danjen
Published on 2012-11-04T22:59:41Z Indexed on 2012/11/04 23:19 UTC
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procedural-generation

I'm making a Minecraft clone for the sake of it (with some inspriation from Dwarf Fortress) and had a few questions about the way the world generation is handled.

Things I want it to cover:

Biomes such as hills, mountains, forests, etc.
Caves/caverns/tunnels
Procedural (so it stretches to infinity... is wrap-around a possibility?)
Breaking the map into smaller chunks
Moddable (ie, new terrain types)
Multiplayer compatible

In particular, I've seen things such as Perlin Noise, Heightmaps, and Marching Cubes thrown around. These are like different tools to use, but I don't know when or why I would use them. Are there any other techniques that are useful for map generation? I realize this is borderline subjective and open-ended, but I am looking for some more insight into the processes involved.

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