Mapgen Optimisations

This page intends to list all possible optimisation techniques that can be used when writing a mapgen in Lua.

Only create perlin noise objects once

The noise object is created by minetest.get_perlin_map(). It has to be created inside register_on_generated() to be usable, but only needs to be created once, many mapgen mods create it for every mapchunk, this consumes memory unnecessarily.

Localise the noise object outside register_on_generated() and initialise it to nil. See the code below for how to create it once only. The creation of the perlin noise tables with get_3d_map_flat() etc. is done per mapchunk

-- Initialize noise objects to nil
local nobj_terrain = nil
local nobj_biome = nil

-- ...
-- On generated function
minetest.register_on_generated(function(minp, maxp, seed)
    -- ...
    nobj_terrain = nobj_terrain or minetest.get_perlin_map(np_terrain, chulens3d)
    nobj_biome = nobj_biome or minetest.get_perlin_map(np_biome, chulens2d)

    nobj_terrain:get_3d_map_flat(minpos3d, nvals_terrain)
    nobj_biome:get2d_map_flat(minpos2d, nvals_biome)
    -- ...
end)

Re-use a single perlin noise table

The Lua table that stores the noise values for a mapchunk is big, especially for 3D noise (80³ = 512000 values). Many Lua mapgens are creating a new table for every mapchunk, while the previous tables are only cleared out slowly by garbage collection, resulting in a large and unnecessary memory use.

A buffer parameter was added in 0.4.13 to avoid this, a single table is re-used by overwriting the former values.

For each of the functions with an optional `buffer` parameter:  If `buffer` is not `nil`, this table will be used to store the result instead of creating a new table.

#### Methods
* `get_2d_map_flat(pos, buffer)`: returns a flat `<size.x * size.y>` element array of 2D noise with values starting at `pos={x=,y=}` ``\
* `get_3d_map_flat(pos, buffer)`: Same as `get_2d_map_flat`, but 3D noise

Localise the noise buffer outside register_on_generated() Use the buffer parameter in get_3d_map_flat() etc.

-- Localise noise buffers
local nvals_terrain = {}
local nvals_biome = {}
-- ...
-- On generated function
minetest.register_on_generated(function(minp, maxp, seed)
    -- ...
    nobj_terrain:get3d_map_flat(minpos3d, nvals_terrain)
    nobj_biome:get2d_map_flat(minpos2d, nvals_biome)
    -- ...
end)

Re-use data tables

The Lua table that stores the node content IDs for a mapchunk plus the mapblock shell is big (112³ = 1404928 values). Many Lua mapgens are creating a new table for every mapchunk, while the previous tables are only cleared out slowly by garbage collection, resulting in a large and unnecessary memory use.

Localise the data buffer outside register_on_generated(). Use the buffer in get_data() or get_param2_data().

-- Localise data buffer
local data = {}

-- On generated function
minetest.register_on_generated(function(minp, maxp, seed)
    -- ...
    local vm, emin, emax = minetest.get_mapgen_object("voxelmanip")
    local area = VoxelArea:new{MinEdge = emin, MaxEdge = emax}
    vm:get_data(data)
    -- ...
end)

Conserve VoxelArea:index calls

What the :index method of VoxelArea does is convert the position provided with XYZ coordinates into the corresponding table index in the data table. This method is fast, but obviously not instant, doing some amount of calculations every time.

In order to conserve the amount of calls to :index, you can take advantage of the fact incrementing the index will move you on the X-axis:

for z = minp.z, maxp.z do
    for y = minp.y, maxp.y do
        local vi = area:index(minp.x, y, z)
        for x = minp.x, maxp.x do
            -- code here

            vi = vi + 1
        end
    end
end

This will significantly cut down on the amount of index calls required by the main mapgen loop.

This article is originally based on an article from the Minetest Developer Wiki: Mapgen memory optimisations by Naj and Wuzzy, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0, in turn based on this forum topic by paramat