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Biomes in Origen are established using cellular noise, resulting in uniform size and shape for most biomes. You can easily adjust biome sizes through the biomeSpread section in customization.yml.

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Core Parameters

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cellDistance

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biomeSpread.cellDistance
number
default:"350"
Basic size of biomes, measured as the distance between two biome centers. Increase this value to make biomes bigger, decrease it to make them smaller.Examples:
  • 250 - Smaller, more varied biomes
  • 350 - Default size (recommended)
  • 500 - Larger biomes with less variety
  • 700 - Very large biomes

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cellJitter

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biomeSpread.cellJitter
number
default:"0.9"
Controls how far biome centers can vary from their grid positions. Higher values create more irregular, organic biome shapes. Scale from 0 to 1.Examples:
  • 0.3 - Very uniform, hexagonal biome shapes
  • 0.6 - Moderate variation
  • 0.9 - Default, highly organic shapes (recommended)
  • 1.0 - Maximum irregularity

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Configuration Example

Here’s how the biome spread section is configured in customization.yml:
customization.yml
biomeSpread:
  # Basic size of biomes (distance between 2 biome centers)
  # Increase to make biomes bigger
  cellDistance: 350

  # how far biome centers can vary away from their centers
  # Increase to make biome sizes vary more (scale 0-1)
  cellJitter: 0.9

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Practical Examples

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Smaller, More Diverse World

Create a world with many smaller biomes for more variety: 
biomeSpread:
  cellDistance: 250
  cellJitter: 0.9
This configuration produces:
  • Biomes approximately 30% smaller than default
  • More biome transitions
  • Greater variety in short distances

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Larger, Epic Landscapes

Create vast biomes for epic exploration: 
biomeSpread:
  cellDistance: 600
  cellJitter: 0.7
This configuration produces:
  • Biomes approximately 70% larger than default
  • Fewer biome transitions
  • More consistent landscapes
  • Slightly more uniform shapes

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Ultra-Uniform Grid

Create nearly perfect hexagonal biome patterns: 
biomeSpread:
  cellDistance: 400
  cellJitter: 0.2
Very low jitter values (< 0.4) can create visibly artificial-looking biome patterns. The default 0.9 is recommended for natural-looking terrain.

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Border Biomes

Some biomes in Origen have border variants (like coastal transitions). You can control the ratio of inner to outer biomes:
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biomeSpread.borderBiomes.edgeThreshold
number
default:"0.8"
Controls the ratio of inner/outer biomes for biomes with borders. Higher values create thinner borders, lower values create thicker borders.
customization.yml
biomeSpread:
  borderBiomes:
    edgeThreshold: 0.8  # Default

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Mountain Frequency

Origen includes special mountain biomes that blend together. You can control their frequency:
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biomeSpread.mountainFrequency
number
default:"0.004"
Shared frequency of larger mountain biomes, allowing them to blend more easily. Increase for more frequent mountains, decrease for rarer ones.
customization.yml
biomeSpread:
  mountainFrequency: 0.004  # Default
Changing biome sizes affects the entire world generation. Larger biomes may make specific biomes harder to find, while smaller biomes increase variety but may create more transition areas.

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Global Scale (Legacy)

Origen also includes a legacy global-scale parameter:
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global-scale
number
default:"1"
Modifies the scale of all biome distribution. Doubling the scale doubles the length and width of everything. This parameter is partially deprecated in favor of cellDistance.
customization.yml
global-scale: 1  # Default, will be removed in future versions
For modern Origen versions, use cellDistance instead of global-scale for more predictable biome sizing.

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Testing Your Changes

  1. Edit customization.yml with your desired values
  2. Restart your server or recreate your world
  3. Explore different biomes to see the size changes
  4. Adjust values incrementally until you find your preferred balance
Changes to biome size parameters only affect newly generated chunks. Existing chunks will retain their original biome layout.

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