Custom Space Rendering and Procedural Terrain Generation in a Minecraft Modification

Recorded on May 2nd, 2026 This is my senior capstone project for my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. This project is a modification of the block-based video game Minecraft, colloquially called a mod, and is composed of two distinct parts. The first is the procedural generation of terrain, where I use different types of noise algorithms to create unique looking shapes of the land. The second part of the project is about the custom rendering of planets and space, with orbit logic, lighting, and textures. Each rendered planet represents a unique terrain generation algorithm. When the player gets close enough to a planet while in space, they are teleported to the surface of that planet. To modify the game and register the Java code with Minecraft, the NeoForge modding API was used. This project was inspired by other video games in the space exploration genre, with the goal of bringing some of this exploration to Minecraft.