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[Tutorial] World-Edit - Planting flowers with commands easily in seconds (2.0)

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Springstof's Avatar Springstof
Level 76 : Legendary Creator
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Introduction


4 years ago, I made a blog with a tutorial on how to easily populate your terrain with flowers, plants and grass. This tutorial is quite outdated, however, so I decided to make a new one. The old one works for older versions of the game. This tutorial is up-to-date for version 1.16.5, using the FAWE fork for World-Edit version 7.2.

So, let's get planting!

First of all, you will need to have a basic understanding about how brushes work in World-Edit. I would recommend watching some guides if you have not used them before. If you understand how brushes work, including the usage of masks, global masks and region actions such as the //replace command, you know all you have to know to do this.

Note: Using the regular version of World-Edit, it seems that the mask commands do not always function correctly! If you are using World-Edit, consider switching to FastAsyncWorldEdit. The commands should work better, and it is much, much faster, and less likely to crash.

Note: If you are new to World-Edit, make sure to regularly back-up any project, because using these commands incorrectly can destroy your worlds quite easily!

Note: I still use legacy ID's from an earlier version of Minecraft. World-Edit still understands these ID's, and it makes the commands a lot shorter. You can replace any ID in all the commands by the plant name, but for longer commands, you may run into the character limit of Minecraft messages. If you hold a stick and type //info, you can then use that stick on any block to see it's name and blockstate, but you will also be able to see the old ID if it had any. Use this to your advantage.


Goals


The goals of this tutorial are to teach you how to easily plant:

- Tall grass, ferns and flowers
- Low grassy plants, or:
- Low grassy plants and small bushes, or:
- Low plants, grass, flowers and bushes.

And:

- Teach you a little bit about the mechanics behind the commands I use, so you can apply them in other scenarios!


Section 1: Tall grass, ferns and flowers

[Tutorial] World-Edit - Planting flowers with commands easily in seconds (2.0)

As this step is quite long, I added an image with visual instructions that you can view here. This image depicts the LONG version as described below!

Otherwise, just follow these steps and use these commands in the correct order. I've created a short and a long version. If you know what you are doing, feel free to follow the short version. If you want to know what the commands mean and why these must be used in order, feel free to read through the long version.

Note: Several intermediary steps will create blocks that cannot normally exist in survival in the same way. It is possible that these steps will not work, or that placed blocks will randomly dissappear. To prevent this, either use a third-party plugin that prevents blocks from updating, or change the gamerule randomTickSpeed to '0' with the command "/gamerule randomTickSpeed 0". This will also stop all other blocks from updating! Trees and crops will stop growing, fire stops spreading, etc. This is very useful when building, but may interupt some things in the world. The default speed is 3, so if you want to re-enable the random ticks, type "/gamerule randomTickSpeed 3" when you are done planting plants.

Note: Something to keep in mind, is that these commands assume that you have no tall plants in the region yet! If you have any pre-existing tall plants, or even half plants, such as rose bush tops or tall grass bottoms, which are also planted using the commands in the next section, either remove them first, or temporarily change them into placeholder blocks, such as colored wool. As this would be quite tedious, I would recommend just removing any pre-existing plants tall/half plants if you want to follow the following steps.

Short version
Step 1: Face the target surface you want to populate
Step 2: Apply the follow brush and mask to a tool, and use the brush on the surface you want to populate
Command 1a: /br sphere 15%175:10,50%0,0.1%175:8,175:9,2%175:11,175:12,175:13 15Command 1b: /mask ">2 0"Step 3: Select the entire region you just populated.
Step 4: Stand on a block anywhere, copy the selection, and move up one block by placing one under you
Command 2: //copyStep 5: Execute the following commands in order.
Command 3a: //gmask >^=[half=upper]Command 3b: //pasteCommand 3c: //gmaskCommand 3d: //replace "^=[half=upper] >2" ^[half=lower]


Long version
Step 1: Pick out the place you want to populate with plants and flowers and select a tool from your inventory.

Step 2: While holding your tool, execute command 1a and command 1b, and click on the area you want to populate. You can use it multiple times on a larger area if you want to paint a bigger surface with flowers.

Command 1a: /br sphere 15%175:10,50%0,0.1%175:8,175:9,2%175:11,175:12,175:13 15
This command will place a variety of tall plants. It will plant the top part of the plants. This is intentional, as the blockstate 'half' will be used in a later global mask command to replace only the plant blocks you place with this brush.

The last number in the command is the radius. You can increase or decrease it. Note that large radii may require a lot of computing power. A decently powerful server should easily be able to handle brushes with a size up to 30 blocks. Don't make them too large if you are unsure if it may crash your server. The percentages indicate the weight of that block in the random pattern. The first percentage is for tall grass, and the second is for air. If you want more grass, increase the first one. If you want less empty blocks, decrease the second percentage. You can also increase the second percentage if you want fewer tall plants and more lower plants as explained in the next part of the tutorial.

Command 1b: /mask ">2 0"
This mask tells the brush to only work over grass blocks that are empty.

The mask could also be ">2,3 0" if you want to also place plants on dirt. You can also use other masks, as long as you do not forget the '0'. If you are unfamiliar with the old block ID's, you can also use the new block names, for example: /mask ">grass_block,dirt,coarse_dirt air"

Step 3: Select the area you just painted entirely with World-Edit. You can do this in multiple ways. For example:
  • Use the World-Edit wand (//wand)
  • Use the commands "//pos1" and "//pos2" in opposing corners of the area
  • Select two points using any method, and use the command "//expand vert" to include all blocks from bedrock to building limit
Step 4: Stand on a block on the ground. It does not matter where exactly. You can mark the spot by placing a piece of colored wool for example. Now execute command 2:

//copy
Now look straight down, jump up and place a block below you without moving in any other direction. In other words: Move up one block in the Y direction by placing a block under you.

Step 5: Now execute the following commands in order. Make sure you do NOT forget one, as this will very likely destroy the selected area.

Command 3a: //gmask ">^=[half=upper] 0"
This command will enable a global mask that tells World-Edit that the operations you want to execute must only be applied to blocks that are exactly above a block with the blockstate "[​half=upper]". In other words, you just copied the region that contains the recently placed plants, and this command will make sure that the next command will only apply to the blocks above those plant tops, which all have the blockstate "half=upper" and it also makes sure that those blocks are currently air, and thus not occupied by another block.

Command 3b: //paste
This command will basically paste the entire selection, but one block (Y+1) higher, basically shifting everything up exactly one block. However, because you used the global mask, it will only do this for blocks that were above the plant tops you just placed, and those block are currently air.

Command 3c: //gmask
This command disables the global mask, which is necessary for the next command.

Command 3d: //replace "^=[half=upper] >2" ^[half=lower]This command replace the bottom half of the double plants you just created with actual bottom halfs by changing the blockstate from "half=upper" to "half=lower". The command defines that the blockstates of all blocks that meet the criteria of having the blockstate "half=upper" and being placed on top of a grass block, should be changed to "half=lower". This completes the last step. You should now have created natural-looking double plants!

Note that if you changed the //mask in the second step, you will also need to have changed this in command 3d. For example, if you used //mask ">2,3 0", the second argument in command 3d should become "^=[​half=upper] >2,3".


Section 2: Low grass, plants, flowers and bushes


This step is a little bit more straight forward, as you only have to use brushes. In this section I will provide several example commands to place different types of low plants to populate your terrain in different ways.

The following commands will only populate the terrain with grass and various 'grassy' plant/shrub types. If you also want to add colorfull flowers, use the third brush instead of the first or second one, but do read the explanation below the first brush, as it contains some relevant information if you don't know it yet.

Note: If you have skipped to this section but also want to add tall plants, please make sure you read section 1 first, and place any tall plants before using these brushes, as these also include some 'half' tall plants. For more explanation about how the brushes and masks work, you can read the second step of the long explanation in section 1.

Brush 1: Just grass

[Tutorial] World-Edit - Planting flowers with commands easily in seconds (2.0)

To just plant grass and ferns (a mixture of regular low grass/ferns and half tall grass/fern blocks), pick a tool, and use the following brush and mask commands:

/br sphere 50%31:1,25%175:2,25%175:10,70%0,5%31:2,5%175:11 10/mask ">2 0"
Again, make sure to use both on the same brush. If you want to also plant grass on other blocks - dirt for example, change the mask to /mask ">2,3 0", or /mask ">grass_block,dirt,coarse_dirt air".

You can also increase the radius of the brush by increasing the last number in the brush command.

The first percentage is the weight of the grass in the randomizer. The second and third blocks are the top and bottom half of double/tall grass plants. These may unexpectedly dissappear if your world has random ticks enabled. Read the first note in section 1 to learn how to prevent this from happening.

Brush 2: Fancy grass with various green shrubs and plants

[Tutorial] World-Edit - Planting flowers with commands easily in seconds (2.0)

This brush will plant grass, as well as various green shrubs, plants and bushes.

/br sphere 50%31:1,25%175:2,25%175:10,70%0,5%31:2,5%175:11 10/mask ">2 0"
Brush 3a: Grass and flower preset



This brush will plant grass and red flowers. The reason it plants red flowers, is because you can easily change these into any other combination of flowers with a second brush. You could plant all grass and flowers using one brush, but you would be limited by the character limit in Minecraft chat. Therefor, this can be used as an intermediary step to later change the red flowers into the ones you desire.

The commands are as follows:

/br sphere 50%31:1,25%175:2,25%175:10,70%0,5%31:2,5%175:11,3%wheat[age=1],3%carrots[age=4],2%sweet_berry_bush[age=0],2%sweet_berry_bush[age=1],bamboo_sapling,10%38 10/mask ">2 0"The last percentage in the brush command determines the weight of the flowers or plants in the mix. If you want to have many flowers, you can increase this percentage to 20, 30, or whatever you want. If you want fewer flowers, you can lower it.

Brush 3b: Colorful flower paradise



This brush will change the flowers you placed with brush 3a into a colorful range of flowers, bushes, plants and mushrooms that will give your terrain a very vibrant atmosphere. It is advisable to use a separate tool to apply this brush to.

/br sphere 37,38,38:1,38:2,38:3,38:4,38:5,38:6,38:7,38:8,lily_of_the_valley,cornflower,0.8%40,0.5%39,0.1%crimson_fungus,0.05%warped_fungus,0.01%crimson_roots,0.5%*sweet_berry_bush,0.5%175:12,0.5%175:13,0.5%175:9 25/mask 38
Note that the mask in this brush is different! It is important that you do not forget to change the mask, or use a separate tool for this entirely. You can remove, add or change the weight of any of the flowers in here. Because there are many flowers in here, I needed to use the old ID's where possible to fit the command into the character limit. If you are unsure which ID stands for what plant, you can use //info while holding a stick and click on the plants to see their ID or name. You can also change the weight of each plant by adding a / changing the percentage.

Brush 3c: Fiery flower valley



This brush, like brush 3b, changes the red flowers placed with brush 3a into a range of red, orange and yellow flowers and plants. This is an example of how you can customize the flower selection in your brush to match the specific palette of atmosphere you are looking for.

/br sphere 38,0.2%38:4,0.2%38:5,0.8%40,0.5%39,0.1%crimson_fungus,0.1%crimson_roots,0.5%sweet_berry_bush[age=2],0.5%sweet_berry_bush[age=3],0.5%175:12 25/mask 38
You can change the brush into any other combination to plant the flowers you want! Some interesting blocks that I used in this tutorial are crops in various growth stages, mushrooms, half tall plants and bamboo for example, but you could probably find many other cool blocks that fit well in the mix. Experiment as much as you can, and you will be guaranteed to create cooler worlds and landscapes in no time!

Conclusion



This sums up how you can use these brushes in various ways to plant different types of plants and grass in your world. You can modify these commands, experiment a bit, and refine them to suit your needs. I only could include a few examples, but the possibilities are virtually limitless.

I hope this tutorial is useful to some. Feel free to ask any questions or let me know about any mistakes or suggestions for this tutorial.



Want to contact me otherwise? I reply most quickly on Discord!

Contact:

Discord: Springstof#0147
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Free downloads: PMC
Twitter: @SpringstofMC
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3
11/18/2021 6:07 amhistory
Level 7 : Apprentice Miner
nuttapillar
nuttapillar's Avatar
Thank you for this. I was using the older version for years, until recently when I found this updated version. I do a lot of landscaping, so it saves me a lot of time.
1
11/18/2021 6:50 pm
Level 76 : Legendary Creator
Springstof
Springstof's Avatar
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your work. If it helped just one person, it was worth typing it out!
1
07/13/2021 6:17 am
Level 1 : New Miner
Cup_Of_Dirt
Cup_Of_Dirt's Avatar
I have some trouble on the 2 block tall plants with step 5 when I try to paste nothing happened.
I'm currently using world edit 7.2.5
1
07/13/2021 10:06 am
Level 76 : Legendary Creator
Springstof
Springstof's Avatar
Are you using World-Edit or FAWE? Because it's possible that the mask in World-Edit uses a slightly different syntax.



- Are you sure you have selected the entire area, also vertically? And did you copy it and see a confirmation in the chat?

- What message do you get in the chatbox when you try to apply the mask?
- When you paste, do you get a confirmation message in the chat?
1
07/15/2021 5:05 am
Level 1 : New Miner
Cup_Of_Dirt
Cup_Of_Dirt's Avatar
I am using WorldEdit
- I selected the whole area and saw the confirmation when copying "312 block were affected"

- When I apply the mask I receive the confirmation as well "Global mask set"
- When I paste I receive the confirmation as well but it wrote "0 blocks affected"
1
07/15/2021 4:09 pm
Level 76 : Legendary Creator
Springstof
Springstof's Avatar
Then for some vague reason either the mask is being interpreted wrong, or the flower tops you placed are not being placed with the correct blockstates. When you place the plant tops, do they look like the 'top' parts of the flowers?



If you want, I could come on to your server to see if I can solve the issue, but I can completely understand why you may not want a random person from the internet to have access to World-Edit on your server. You could also stream it on Discord if you want, so I can watch to see if I can see anything wrong. My Discord is Springstof#0147
1
10/01/2021 1:23 amhistory
Level 17 : Journeyman Architect
SWChrisMC
SWChrisMC's Avatar
Same issue. When I follow this in 1.16.5, the tall grass that places is the lower half, not the upper half.

I thought maybe it was a syntax error too, so I switched the brush to /br sphere 15%tall_grass[​half=upper],30%grass,55%air 6. And while this results in the upper half of the tall grass placing, there are still zero blocks copied in on top of them when I paste. I think there's something funky going on with the global mask.

I'm on Fabric and as far as I can tell I can't switch over to Spigot and FAWE because I"m using shaders for a video.
1
10/01/2021 7:57 amhistory
Level 76 : Legendary Creator
Springstof
Springstof's Avatar
I'm afraid we did not find a solution. I actually went online on their server and tried to do it myself, and it does indeed behave differently from how it works on my own server. The fix was to switch to another server that did support FAWE.



A very roundabout way to do it would be to do it for every tall plant individually. Instead of placing half tall plants, you could place wool blocks, and another colour of wool on top of it using masks. Then you can replace the two colours with the bottoms and tops respectively, and repeat the process for the other plants. But that takes a whole lot of extra steps. If you do it for an entire project though, it might be worth it.
3
07/02/2021 8:46 am
Level 100 : Transcendent Cake
PMC
PMC's Avatar
Excellent tutorial! Love how it's split up into sections and explained in several ways.
2
07/03/2021 11:00 pm
Level 76 : Legendary Creator
Springstof
Springstof's Avatar
Thank you very much! It took me quite some time to figure this out, so I hope that by sharing my findings, I can help out other builders and terraformers :)
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