Island Shapes
ARCHIVED: The plugin uses procedural shapes for all islands. This page is only for old plugin versions (< 5.0.2)
Islands allows configuring custom shapes in form of schematic files to act like a mask when creating an island. These schematic files are located in plugins/Islands/shapes. This feature requires WorldEdit to be installed.
You can find example shapes I have made here. To use shape with Islands, move the shape to plugins/Islands/shapes. You can create these shapes with WorldEdit's //schem save command (See Creating Shapes below). After dragging shape to shapes/ folder, it will be enabled for islands that have the same width as the schematic file in question. For example, the shape_small_32.schem will target all islands that are 32x32 (small islands by default). That's because the schematic in question has width of 32 blocks. For a file to be recognised it must have .schematic or .schem extension (And be a valid schematic file of course). If a shape was enabled successfully, you will get a console message that states the file name and the island size that will be using that shape.
For starters, it's important to have basic understanding of how the plugin generates islands. Every island can be horizontally divided into two parts. This division happens in the middle of the island where the highest non-burnable block is located (When using a shape, normally its usually the highest stone block). Use this information to create the highest layer of your mask. If you design the shape to be used for islands with size of 64x64 blocks, your topmost layer should be a circle with the diameter of 64.
Below that level you can design your shape / mask pretty much how you like. What block you use doesn't matter, but I'd recommend using something simple like stone. When saving the schematic, make sure there selection area is as small as possible while still containing your shape. The shape must have the same horizontal width as the island you designed it for. If this is not the case, the join between shape and top part of the island will not be seamless. The same goes for the topmost layer of your shape: If you don't make it a perfect circle, the result won't be seamless.
Tips for creating a good mask:
- Start by copying an island that the shape is going to be designed for. Cut the top part of that island away where the island is the most widest. Then flip the remaining bottom half upside down and replace solid blocks with stone. Fill caves. Create the basic shape of the mask with brushes and then smooth it out. After that, plant and grow some trees around the mask, more trees closer to the middle. Then replace all the wood and leaves with sand, let the sand fall down and then replace that sand with stone. Congratulations, you have created nice stalactites for your island. Now just flip the shape again and save it as a schematic.
- The shape's height doesn't matter, but if you make the shape insanely tall, it may cut out at the bottom when island spawns with low y-height.
How to properly save the schematic. No paddings! (The box is highlighted with Litematica)
The topmost layer should be as close to perfect circle, with diameter of the target island.
The island will be split in two. The highlighted layer will be first layer that uses your mask.
Close up of the split. Your mask starts where the first non-burnable block is located in the middle of the island.
