Update

There are now two different variants of this datapack:

1. Cascades - The original version of this pack with new terrain, some edits to vanilla biomes, and a few new biomes.
2. Cascades: Source - A slimmed-down version of this pack which only contains the terrain changes. This should be, broadly-speaking, compatible with other world generation datapacks which add new biomes.

Both variants of the pack are available in the 'Releases' section of this repository.

Overview

This datapack re-imagines vanilla Minecraft terrain in a way which seeks to inspire a greater sense of awe, wonder, and beauty. It takes inspiration from some of the features of terrain generation from Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 and versions before, like towering cliffs, floating islands, and crazy overhangs, and integrates them into the elegant, cascading terrain made possible by the new terrain generator introduced in 1.18. The aim here is for the player to discover many distinct 'natural landmarks' as they explore the world, which inspire them to build and explore further. The introduction of fully-traversible rivers (including underground rivers) mean that the player can also explore their world by boat much more easily.

At the same time, it seeks to preserve the vanilla balance and feel, not adding any new structures or drastically different new biomes, ensuring that it is survival-friendly.

Key terrain features added:

• More overhangs, cliffs, and floating islands
• Proper sand and gravel beaches
• Larger continents and oceans
• Expansive lakes dotted with small islands
• Underground rivers
• Smoother transitions from land to water

Biomes

Almost all vanilla biomes have been preserved. There are, however, a few exceptions, since some biomes had to be removed to make space for new ones:

• New biomes:
  • Seasonal Forest: port of the same biome from Beta with vibrant green grass in which only oak trees generate. This biome has a higher-than-normal chance for fancy oaks to generate.
  • Autumnal Forest: a biome with yellowish-coloured grass in which oak and birch trees generate, as well as giant mushrooms. This biome was inspired by the screenshot posted by Notch during the development of the Beta 1.8 update.
  • Temperate Rainforest: a biome with cooler green grass in which taiga and oak trees generate, as well as ferns and berry bushes.
  • Rainforest: replacement for the Sparse Jungle biome, but with less dense foliage as well as more fancy oak trees and tall ferns.
• Biomes removed from vanilla:
  • Windswept Savanna
  • Windswept Forest
  • Windswept Hills
  • Windswept Gravelly Hills
  • Birch Forest
  • Old Growth Birch Forest
• Adjustments to existing biomes:
  • Since the old sand and gravel beaches have been re-added, this means that the (unsightly) sand, gravel and clay blobs have been removed. An implication of this would be that clay and gravel are more difficult to find. To make up for this, clay can now be found at bottom of lukewarm oceans and deep lukewarm oceans. Gravel already spawns at the bottom of most other ocean types (except warm), but the depth of the gravel has been increased instead of only occupying the floor block. This is, of course, in addition to clay already spawning in the Lush Caves.
  • The dark foliage colours in the swamp biome have been removed, and the foliage colours in a couple of other biomes have been slightly adjusted.
  • The sky colours in all biomes have been changed to more accurately reflect how they were in Minecraft Beta.
  • Turtles now spawn in the Stony Shore biome
  • Salmon spawn in slightly larger numbers in Rivers and Frozen Rivers to account for the reduction in spawning spaces due to the shallower rivers in this pack
  • Jungle biomes have been made less dense than they are in vanilla
• There are probably a few more minor changes that I have forgotten about.

Everything else has been kept the same as vanilla, which means that the new caves added in 1.18 will still generate.