Latitude

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A planet-scale world with real geography and climate bands.

Latitude brings new life to Minecraft world generation by distributing biomes according to latitude. Thick jungles and sprawling savanna stretch out from the equator and gradually give way to cooler climates heading north or south towards the poles, where snow blankets the landscape and water freezes. I built Latitude to make Minecraft worlds feel finite and real, and to make travel feel purposeful, grounded, and exciting.

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⚠️ Latitude overhauls world generation and takes effect in new worlds. Existing Latitude worlds keep the generation they were created with.

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🗺️ Latitude-based geography

Five climate bands radiate outward from the equator at the center of the world to the poles at its edges:

Zone	Character	Typical Biomes
🌴 Tropical	Hot, humid, lush	Jungle, Bamboo Jungle, Mangrove Swamp, Sprawling savanna
☀️ Subtropical	Warm and varied, drier toward the edges	Savanna, Desert, Badlands, Plains
🌿 Temperate	Mild, forested, familiar	Forest, Birch Forest, Meadow
🌨️ Subpolar	Cold, stark, increasingly sparse	Taiga, Snowy Plains, Grove
❄️ Polar	Frozen and forbidding	Snowy Plains, Ice Spikes, Frozen Ocean

Zones blend gradually, avoiding harsh climate seams and allowing travel across the latitude bands to feel smooth and natural.

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⛰️ Snow-capped mountains with tree lines

Mountains get a sense of scale, with forests thinning out at the tree line, where only grass and sparse foliage survive, while barren rock and snow blanket the highest peaks.

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🥾 Wanderlust

A planet-like map makes the frontier a real place, with real stakes:

• Approaching the poles present a real freeze-hazard.
• At the edges of the world, you'll encounter gradually thickening fog that disguises the vanilla borders to help with immersion.
• Climate band and hemisphere titles cinematically announce your crossings.

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🌐 Finite by design

Pick a world size! By design, Latitude worlds are finite. This size limit helps worlds feel more natural and purposeful.

Size	Diameter	Feel
Itty Bitty	7,500 × 7,500	Equator to pole in an afternoon
Tiny	10,000 × 10,000	Tiny and cute
Small	15,000 × 15,000	Compact and varied
Regular	20,000 × 20,000	Balanced
Large	30,000 × 30,000	Long-haul survival
Ginormous	40,000 × 40,000	Continental-scale trek

Everything scales with the size you pick — band widths, border behavior, latitude math. A smaller world doesn't cut off a bigger one; it compresses the whole climate system proportionally. That said, with custom biome packs installed, smaller worlds may have reduced biome representation.

Choose your spawn zone: prefer hot climates? Spawn into a lush, tropical adventure! Prefer the cold? Drop into a snowy wonderland!

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🧭 Navigate with ease

Latitude ships a built-in navigation HUD, fully customizable:

• Compass — digital (cardinal, 8-way, or degrees) or analog with different color themes.
• Latitude readout — your live position in the world
• Biome & zone detail — see where you are, or not!
• Customizable — size, color, opacity, position

HUD Studio: press F9 in-game (rebindable) to open a live editing screen — drag the title, compass, and location readout wherever you want, snap-to-grid or free. A quick keybind toggles the compass on and off.

For server operators, release builds include a small /latitude command set (here, explainHere, probe, tpLat, tpBand) for inspecting and navigating the climate map.

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🧩 Compatibility

Latitude works through Minecraft's biome-tag system. Pairs nicely with terrain-shaping mods like Tectonic, Geophilic, and William Wyther's Overhauled Overworld. Custom biome support places biomes into the right climate bands automatically. Currently supported packs include Biomes O' Plenty, Terralith, and CliffTree, with more to come.

ℹ️ A note on big biome-pack stacks: each climate band draws from a finite pool, so the more packs you stack, the smaller each biome's share becomes — you won't necessarily see every biome from every pack. The mix stays coherent and climate-appropriate. Vanilla biomes are given preference.

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🔭 What's next — Latitude 2.0 🌏

Latitude 2.0 is in production. The larger overhaul being showcased publicly — with its more elaborate mechanics — is a separate line and still in development: expanded biome support, broader worlds, and more earthlike generation shaped by continents, oceans, climate, and exploration. And all the cats you could ever want!!! 🐈‍⬛🐈

1.5 is the final polish release of the 1.x line, and the best version of this idea to date.

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💛 About & Support + AI Disclaimer

If you've ever thought vanilla biome placement felt random and disconnected — this fixes that. Latitude is built for long-term survival worlds, exploration-focused playthroughs, and modpacks that want a world that feels like a real place without piling on new content.

🧭 Latitude is a solo passion project and my first mod. Thank you for playing -- I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! :D

👾 Latitude contains AI-generated code (I am still learning to code with Java!), but the project is designed, directed, planned, and tested by me. I use AI to help me realize my dream, not to churn out slop. If you see any wonky code that could use improvement, please feel free to open a pull request! :)

🐛 Found a bug, or want to follow development? → GitHub

⭐ Enjoying Latitude? Leave a ❤️ on Modrinth — it genuinely helps a solo dev!

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➢ Follow my mod development: https://www.youtube.com/@peetsamods

video lag is unrelated to actual gameplay--it's just my computer COOKING 🍳

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🌍 A development journal for Latitude

Curious about the bigger idea behind the project? Read the Latitude Field Guide for a look behind the scenes at real-time development. Updated by Codex, designed and overseen by me (totally human, promise!).