Seed FAQ

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MrPig

New user
What are Seeds?
Seeds are simply a set of numbers for a pseudorandom number generator to use. A pseudorandom number generator acts as a sequence that approximates true random numbers.

For example, say I made a random number generator which doubles an existing number, then takes the first and last number of the result and uses that to make the next one.
Seed 54 will result in this sequence of outputs: 54, 18, 36, 72, 14, 28.
Seed 81 will result in this sequence of outputs: 81, 16, 32, 64, 18, 36.
Obviously, this is a cruddy pseudorandom number generator, Minecraft obviously uses a different one.

A Seeds purpose is ultimately to give a starting place for a sequence.

Will the same seed always result in the same world?
The short answer is yes, the long answer is sometimes.
Different operating systems may give different results for the same seed. This is untested though, so for now, just assume that it should give the same world, but it is not guaranteed.

Notice that even with the same seed, the spawn location is likely to be different, which can result in some confusion.

How do Seeds affect world generation?
On a per-chunk scale, they affect altitude, caves, biomes, trees, ores, dungeons and their contents.

On a smaller scale, every map looks different and it's the seed that does this. Some maps may be more mountainous on the left, others on the right, some may be 30% dessert while others are only 10% dessert.

On a large scale, every map will look exactly the same, there will be a equal number of mountains, diamonds, caves, deserts, in every direction. This is the downfall of using a seed for random generation. Ultimately, each map is going to have nothing truly unique, as a desert shaped like Notch's head will likely appear thousands of times in the same world.


Why can I use words instead of numbers?
Letters and symbols on computers are stored in Bytes, presumably minecraft converts these bytes into decimal numbers, for example, the letter m = 01101101 and converted into decimal that is 109.
Capital letters and lower case letters have different values in binary, so if you do decide to use words, make sure you use the correct capitalization.
 

Anonymous

Regular user
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Interesting. I actually knew very little about minecraft seeds (I had a general concept) but nothing extremely valuable.
 
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