Differences in world generation between minecraft platforms?
Within some version of Minecraft for PC I've found through web searches that the world generation differs, but my questions is rather if the main engine for world generator are the same or similar for the different platforms.
That is, does world generation differ between the PC version, the pocket edition version and/or the XBox/PS4 version? Or does all world generators use the same base algorithm?
Best Answer
Between Platforms
Between platforms there currently isn't any parity unless you consider Minecraft PE and Minecraft Windows 10 Edition to be different versions. Under Microsoft's watch, the new trend is definitely toward parity between all versions. This is the impetous for moving away from Java and moving to a single language that they are implementing across platforms. Hopefully there will be true interplay between platforms.
Version to Version
We've been PE tracking seeds for a long time . For most of Minecraft PE's history the world render algorithm was pretty fluid - changing a lot. But, as with the maturity of the PC platform, Pocket Edition world render has incorporated backward compatibility better in each version they have come out with. Essentially, if there is a feature in 0.13 or even 0.12, it should render and be present in 0.14, 0.15 and now even 0.16. Where the changes seem to lie today is when new biomes or generated structures are introduced. Seeds work the same, but with or without that specific feature or biome. Sometimes an generated structure can render in both, but have a different visual appearance due to updates. Here's an example. We had found a seed in 0.14 that had a village right by spawn that was partially embedded or upon a mountain.
When 0.15 came out, the seed was the same, but now the village was slightly different, taking on the new Savanna Village appearance (a new addition in 0.15). Here's the comparison:
The seed is 'some energy' (or '988605236' numerically)
I hope that helps. The other thing that has stabilized over time is when the render engine changes. In earlier versions it would sometimes change in a point release (0.12.1 to 0.12.2) but now it seems that render engine is tuned a bit, and any changes happen at the major version level (0.12 vs 0.13).
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What are the differences between Minecraft versions?
Bedrock Edition uses the LevelDB format for world storage while Java Edition uses the Anvil format. Due to this, most third-party tools created for Java Edition world editing will not work on Bedrock Edition. The two versions also use a fairly different block format.Is Minecraft all platforms the same?
You can play together with other players on different platforms, including Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. No need to buy separate versions of the game for each platform.Is every world different in Minecraft?
Minecraft's universe is procedurally generated, meaning that an algorithm places each asset\u2014every hill, mountain, cave, river, sheep, and so on\u2014in a unique arrangement every time a new game is loaded, so that no two players' worlds are exactly alike.Why are there two different versions of Minecraft?
Because it was Java-based, Minecraft could run on various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Mobile devices, such as iPhone, iPad, and Android smartphones, aren't able to run Java. To release Minecraft on those devices, new versions were written.How Do Minecraft Worlds Generate?!
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Answer 2
It appears that the map generation algorithm can change per version, regardless of platform. However, different platforms may be on different versions (for example, an update will likely occur on the PC version before the console release).
There is no guarantee that you will get the same map when generating a world on version x and version y using the same seed.
Pocket Edition
The pocket edition is missing features from the latest PC version, and therefore at this current time you will get different worlds from the same seed.
Minecraft PE does not include all the features that the PC version has because most phones can't handle a lot of content. Therefore PE has less content making terrain generation different. If you type in the same seed on both versions the worlds will be totally different. Maybe in the distant future they will have the same terrain generation but I wouldn't count on it. Example: If you load up a PC seed that has acacia wood and use the same seed on Minecraft PE. The PE version doesn't include acacia wood yet so the wood will never generate until it is added.
Console
In terms of console comparisons, for the most part they will all be on the same version, meaning the same seed across console releases will produce the same map.
PC vs Console
Again, this depends on the version of the Console release. However, even when in sync the console edition has some limitations (map size etc) to consider. This will mean that the same map cannot ever be truly generated. People have reported that most of the map may be similar (with variations around the limits of the map size and structures).
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Alexander Suhorucov, Monstera, Monstera, Monstera