a_pleasant_stroll/mapgen.lua

--- Procedural generation methods

function init_mapgen()
   uid_seed = 2229 -- arbitrarily chosen number
   block_size = 64
   biome_size = 128

   -- Metadata for different biomes
   -- frequencies don't have to add up to 100, but they should by convention
   --
   -- Sprites are:
   --  * 2 - grass
   --  * 3 - bush
   --  * 4 - tree
   --  * 5 - red flowers
   --  * 6 - pink flowers
   --  * 7 - mushrooms
   --  * 8 - big mushroom
   --  * 9 - sand
   --  * 10 - cactus with flower
   --  * 11 - pebbles
   --  * 12 - rock
   --  * 13 - cactus
   biome_data = {
      grassland = {
         biome_frequency = 75,
         tile_frequencies = { {40, 2}, {28, 5}, {28, 6}, {3, 3}, {1, 4} }
      },
      forest = {
         biome_frequency = 20,
         tile_frequencies = { {60, 2}, {20, 4}, {5, 3}, {5, 5}, {4, 7}, {5, 6}, {1, 8} }
      },
      desert = {
         biome_frequency = 5,
         tile_frequencies = { {80, 9}, {10, 11}, {6, 13}, {3, 12}, {1, 10} },
      }
   }

   -- Why is this hard-coded separately from the biome_data? glad you asked.
   -- Lua's pairs() function appears not to guarantee a consistent return order,
   -- and we want our world to be deterministically generated,
   -- so the biome_metadata array needs to have its entries appear consistently.
   biome_list = {"grassland", "forest", "desert"}

   init_biomes()
end

function init_biomes()
   -- this is the frequency list for the biomes themselves
   biome_metadata = {}

   for i=1,#biome_list do
      local biome = biome_list[i]

      -- add the biome's name N times to the biome metadata 'hat'
      for i=1,biome_data[biome]["biome_frequency"] do
         add(biome_metadata, biome)
      end

      build_biome(biome, biome_data[biome])
   end
end

-- build the lookup table for a given biome, based on the biome_meta data for
-- that string.
function build_biome(biome_name, data)
   local meta_frequencies = data["tile_frequencies"]
   local tile_lookup = {}

   for i=1,#meta_frequencies do
      local tuple = meta_frequencies[i]
      for j=1,tuple[1] do
         add(tile_lookup, tuple[2])
      end
   end

   data["tile_lookup"] = tile_lookup
end

-- generates a unique identifier for a position
-- uses srand() and rand() to get an unpredictable value (is this too slow?)
function generate_uid(pos)
   srand((pos[1] + uid_seed) * (pos[2] + (uid_seed^2)))
   return flr(rnd(-1))
end

-- given an {x,y} position, calculates the aligned starting position for the
-- biome that position is in.
function calculate_biome_pos(pos)
   return {flr(pos[1] / biome_size), flr(pos[2] / biome_size)}
end

-- determines which biome a given world map position should be,
-- returns the object out of the biome_data table
function get_biome(pos)
   local biome_pos = calculate_biome_pos(pos)
   local uid = generate_uid(biome_pos)
   local biome_name = biome_metadata[(uid % #biome_metadata) + 1]
   return biome_data[biome_name]
end

-- determine what sprite to render for a given position.
-- todo: this needs the ability to have a list of 'changed' tiles to check against.
function get_tile(pos)
   local biome = get_biome(pos)
   local uid = generate_uid(pos)

   return biome["tile_lookup"][(uid % #biome["tile_lookup"]) + 1]
end

-- generate the map and writes to the map area from 0 - block_size,
-- assuming 'start' as the top-left corner of the map area to generate.
-- writes block_size x block_size tiles
-- after a call to generate_map you should always center the camera/player over the map, i.e.
-- camera at { (block_size / 2) - 8, (block_size / 2) - 8 }
function generate_map(start)
   for x=0,block_size-1 do
      for y=0,block_size-1 do
         mset(x, y, get_tile({start[1]+x, start[2]+y}))
      end
   end
end