Biome XML Properties

The <biome_filename>.xml file goes in the vegetation folder beside the other folders for the package and should be formatted as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<BiomeRules>
    
    <BiomeRule name="[BIOME NAME]" speciesInstancesPerHectar="NUM" onlyArtificialAreas="BOOL">
        
        <SpeciesList>
            <Species name="big_cactus" spawnRatio="1">
                
                <Color r="15" g="0.5" b="0.5"/>
            </Species>
        </SpeciesList>
        
        <EcoRegionList>
            <EcoRegion name="[REGION NAME]"/>
        </EcoRegionList>
        
        <PotentialNaturalVegetationList>
            <PotentialNaturalVegetation name="[NATURAL VEGETATION NAME]"/>
        </PotentialNaturalVegetationList>
    </BiomeRule>
    
</BiomeRules>

Here you must include the <BiomeRules> element, and the rest of the XML is comprised of the elements listed on this page. You can find a complete example of a biome file here:

• Biome Example

<BiomeRules>#

This element is a container element for one or more <BiomeRule> elements. It has no attributes.

<BiomeRule>#

This element is what is used to generate a rule for specific biomes about what species of vegetation is to be used within the biome. It can contain <SpeciesList>, <EcoRegionList>, and <PotentialNaturalVegetationList> sub-elements and has the following attributes:

<SpeciesList>#

This element is a container element for one or more <Species> elements. It has no attributes.

<Species>#

With this element you can define a single species that will be used to populate the biome being defined. This is a sub-element of the <SpeciesList> and you can have more than one of these elements to define multiple species to be spawned within a single biome. The element can contain the <Color /> sub-element and has the following attributes:

<Color />#

This optional sub-element of <Species> is used to define multiplier values for each of the colourt components of a species. This is a self-closing element with the following attributes:

<EcoRegionList>#

This optional element is a container element for one or more <EcoRegion /> elements. It has no attributes. This element is used to add in specific Eco Regions where the biome species will be spawned, and can be used in conjunction with the <PotentialNaturalVegetationList> element, or on it’s own.

<EcoRegion />#

This element is used to define an Eco Region where the biome species will be spawned. This is a sub-element of <EcoRegionList> and has the following attribute:

<PotentialNaturalVegetationList>#

This optional element is a container element for one or more <PotentialNaturalVegetation /> elements. It has no attributes. The natural vegetation types selected in the sub-elements within this element are generalised groupings of vegetation species based on the environment. These can be used on their own to define a very general biome that will be spread out over multiple areas of the simulation, or in conjunction with the <EcoRegionList> element to be used no only generally, but in specific eco-regions too.

<PotentialNaturalVegetation />#

This element is used to define the kind of natural vegetation type that the biome species will belong to. This is a sub-element of <PotentialNaturalVegetationList> and has the following attribute: