Chunk Generation

[Yoda Nobunaga]

In the map editor I need to generate a large area for what I'm planning, but going around and sweeping it is obnoxious. Can I click and drag an area on the map and it'll just generate it for me?

[Morsk]

This will generate chunks in a rectangle selected by map pings. It uses a technique where map pings can be entered directly into a script, which it will understand as part of its own text.

1. paste the script into chat, without hitting Enter to finish it
2. ping the map twice (Shift + Left-Click) with the chat open
3. type a closing quote " to end the script
4. hit Enter

/c --[[ generate chunks ]]
local function box_on_surface(s)
  local a,b,c,d,m,M,n=1/0,1/0,-1/0,-1/0,math.min,math.max
  for x,y,z in s:gmatch("%[gps=([+-]?[%d%.]+),([+-]?[%d%.]+),?([^%]]*)%]")do a=m(a,x+0)b=m(b,y+0)c=M(c,x+0)d=M(d,y+0)n=z end
  return{left_top={x=a,y=b},right_bottom={x=c,y=d}}, game.get_surface(#n>0 and n or 1)
end
local function go(s)
  local box, surface = box_on_surface(s)
  --[[ nudge left_top corner to match a chunk boundary --]]
  box.left_top.x = 32 * math.floor(box.left_top.x / 32)
  box.left_top.y = 32 * math.floor(box.left_top.y / 32)
  --[[ looping through 32 tiles at a time will hit each chunk once --]]
  for x = box.left_top.x, box.right_bottom.x, 32 do
    for y = box.left_top.y, box.right_bottom.y, 32 do
      surface.request_to_generate_chunks({x=x, y=y}, 0)
    end
  end
 surface.force_generate_chunk_requests()
 game.player.force.chart(surface, box)
end
go "

The script ends in an unterminated quote, and is not valid Lua. You are supposed to complete it before hitting Enter.

I unfortunately lost the original version of the 'box_on_surface' function that parses map pings into a bounding box, and only have the "compressed" version which looks like an obfuscated mess. But it works. If I ever posted the idea to reddit I would redo it.