v2.9.0

QwenLM/Qwen3-TTSv2.9.0Jun 16, 2026by louis-e

AI Summary

This release prioritizes performance optimization by streaming world generation to disk to reduce memory usage and parallelizing work across CPU cores. It also adds significant visual realism features.

Key Highlights

  • Streaming world generation to disk to reduce RAM usage
  • Parallel processing across CPU cores for faster generation
  • Realistic biomes, forests, and layered underwater terrain
  • Scaled roads and airports with proper runways and markings
  • Baked lighting for generated worlds

New Features

  • Streaming world generation to disk
  • Parallel processing across CPU cores
  • Underground ore spawning
  • Realistic biomes and tree species variety
  • Layered underwater terrain and plants
  • Scaled road widths based on lane count
  • Airports with runways, markings, and parked planes
  • Baked chunk lighting
  • Christ the Redeemer 3D model
  • Modern sheen animation for progress bars

Full Release Notes

<img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d05be96b-4f81-46eb-9100-b5c67e0d1466" width="100%" alt="Banner">

This update is mostly about speed and memory. Arnis now streams the world to disk as it generates instead of holding all of it in memory, so it uses far less RAM and handles much larger areas, and it now spreads the work across all of your CPU cores to generate faster. For survival players, ores now spawn underground when the Fill Ground option is enabled. The world itself feels more natural too: biomes are taken from real land cover, forests have more tree species and variety, lakes and seabeds get layered underwater terrain and plants, and mountains above the snow line are capped in snow. Roads now scale to their real lane count, parking lots look cleaner, airports get proper runways with markings and parked planes, and additional new landmarks are rendered in 3D. Ultimately, the mods Voxy and Chunky now have better support with the bake lighting option in the settings.

## Assets
* Windows: arnis-windows.exe
* Linux: arnis-linux
* MacOS: arnis-mac-universal

**Scroll down to find the download in _Assets._**

## What's Changed

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## What's Changed
* feat(water): per-cell water depth carving by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1054
* Fix PR Benchmark to measure the PR head by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1056
* Bake chunk lighting so generated worlds load lit by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1055
* feat(3d): add Christ the Redeemer manual-overlay model by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1062
* fix(overture): resolve STAC release dynamically via /catalog.json by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1063
* Feat/survival prep by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1065
* Feat/stadium archetype by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1069
* feat: aeroplanes on runways + marked, width-aware runways by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1072
* perf(world_editor): single-traversal write on the default no-override path by @rzmo in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1067
* refactor(world_editor): dedup set-if-absent write helpers by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1073
* perf(world_editor): parallelize Bedrock chunk encoding by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1074
* ci: add duplicate issue finder (comment-only) by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1075
* ci: harden + fix duplicate issue finder (sandbox tools) by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1077
* ci: issue bot — add grounded resolution hint by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1079
* ci: build a self-contained Linux AppImage in the release workflow by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1081
* Perf/large area scaling by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1095
* feat(gui): self-calibrating ETA, progress overhaul, --benchmark instrumentation by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1100
* chore(deps): bump serde_json from 1.0.149 to 1.0.150 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1087
* build(deps): bump rusqlite from 0.33.0 to 0.40.0 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1085
* build(deps): bump actions/checkout from 4 to 6 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1082
* build(deps): bump rfd from 0.16.0 to 0.17.2 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1084
* Batch elevation tile downloads to avoid stalling on large bboxes by @TonyD365 in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1060
* fix: drop overflowing corner-coordinate sums (i32 add-overflow crash) by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1101
* Feat/layered water beds underwater vegetation by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1102
* Bays and Marinas by @CrashLogger in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/984
* Feat/parking visual upgrade by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1103
* feat(highways): scale road width with lane count by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1104
* fix(trees): always cap the trunk top with an apex leaf by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1105
* fix(water): don't snap the water level across a real cliff by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1106
* Feat/elevation snow line by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1107
* fix(datapack): support Minecraft 1.21.4 through 26.1.x by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1109
* feat(gui): add a subtle modern sheen animation to the progress bar by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1111
* fix(gui): stop false 'Not enough disk space' on a bogus 0-byte reading (#824) by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1113
* Prepare v2.9.0 release by @louis-e in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1112

## New Contributors
* @rzmo made their first contribution in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1067
* @TonyD365 made their first contribution in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/1060
* @CrashLogger made their first contribution in https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/pull/984

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**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/louis-e/arnis/compare/v2.8.0...v2.9.0