Cave

procedural mines for roblox. every server gets a new one. tunnels generate around you as you explore, every cave connects to every other one, and ore grows on the walls.

play it on roblox

what's in it

• a new mine every server, seed shown in the corner so you can share a good one
• terrain tunnels, chambers and the odd huge cavern with rock pillars, all one connected network so there's never a sealed-off pocket
• the network's a random tree per region with loops added on top, so you get dead ends, hubs where 4+ tunnels meet, and more than one way round. Cave.stats() prints the numbers for the current seed
• deep chasms through several layers with rope bridges wherever a tunnel comes out
• lava tubes deep down: long smooth round tunnels with a glowing cracked-lava floor
• geodes: hollow crystal-lined balls sealed in solid rock. a faint sparkle on a nearby wall is the only clue, you have to dig in
• a surface over the top: rolling hills in the afternoon sun with grass and bare rock where it's steep. the sun comes down the sinkholes but the caves stay dark. cave mouths come out of the hillsides with a timber frame and a lantern
• sinkholes: round shafts from the surface down through several layers, with a torch-lit spiral ledge you can walk down
• underground rivers winding downhill between junctions, with real water, drifting foam, and waterfalls where they spill into a chasm
• rock changes with depth: sandstone, limestone, slate, basalt, then lava at the bottom
• biomes: plain rock with lanterns, crystal caves, mushroom caves and caves full of little tide pools
• stalactites, stalagmites and rubble in the plain rock bits
• water settles in the real dips in the floor, only where it's walled in, with a pale flowstone rim round it. mineral streaks run down the walls
• coal, iron, gold and diamond on the walls. they grow back after you mine them and your counts save
• a spawn room with a minecart, crates and a lit first tunnel with easy ore in it
• chunks load nearest first around players and unload when nobody's near. anything you dig stays dug

controls

equip the pickaxe (1) and hold click. hit ore to mine it, hit rock to dig through it. F throws a flare.

it's properly dark down there. you've got a helmet lamp, and the big caverns have glowworms all over the ceiling.

setup

with rojo: rokit install, then rojo serve and hit connect in the studio plugin. everything goes in the right place and lighting gets set to Future.

or by hand:

1. src/Cave.luau goes in ServerScriptService as a ModuleScript called Cave
2. src/Start.server.luau goes next to it as a Script
3. src/Pickaxe.client.luau, src/Atmosphere.client.luau and src/Props.client.luau go in StarterPlayerScripts as LocalScripts
4. src/CaveMeshes.luau goes in ReplicatedStorage as a ModuleScript called CaveMeshes
5. set Lighting.Technology to Future

the rock texture is Stylized Rock PBR Material by Nezhull (public domain). insert it from the toolbox and put it in MaterialService as CaveRock, plus copies with their BaseMaterial set to Slate, Sandstone and Limestone called CaveRock_Slate, CaveRock_Sandstone and CaveRock_Limestone. without it you just get roblox's normal rock, nothing breaks.

to keep ore counts between sessions, publish the place and turn on Studio Access to API Services (File → Experience Settings → Security).

changing it

• same mine every time: set LOCK_SEED at the top of Start.server.luau
• everything else is in Cave.settings at the top of Cave.luau. the ones worth trying first are tunnelRadius, cavernChance, chasmChance, biomes and the ores table (hits and respawn)
• in edit mode, Cave.preview(), Cave.findCavern(), Cave.findChasm() and Cave.findBiome("crystal") build it without pressing play so you can fly around

tools

• live editor: copy plugin/CaveEditor.lua into your local plugins folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Roblox\Plugins on windows, ~/Documents/Roblox/Plugins on mac) and restart studio. Plugins > Cave > Editor opens a panel with a seed box and sliders, and every change rebuilds the cave round your camera. "print settings" puts the changed ones in the output
• debug views (CaveDebug): the tunnel network drawn through the rock with junctions coloured by type (red hubs, purple caverns, yellow chambers, blue dead ends, green ramps), a cut-away that slices the terrain in half so you see the layers, and a map of the network from above in the editor panel
• timelapse (CaveTimelapse): builds the mine chunk by chunk with the camera swinging round it and the front cut away, for recording. require(game.ServerScriptService.CaveTimelapse).run(require(game.ServerScriptService.Cave)), or the button in the editor

all of it works in edit mode, no need to press play.

every step with screenshots is in PROGRESS.md, changes are in CHANGES.md. MIT licensed.