I am incredibly new to noise, so please bear with me here. So I used the code from http://cabbynode.net/2012/06/10/perlin-simplex-noise-for-c-and-xna/ to create my noise. I simply filled a jagged float array with these values and used a white 16x16 texture colored on draw based on value to represent the result visually. Here is that result:
So, it appears to be interpolating nicely enough. But the question is how do I use this? I can think of a couple of possibilities:
Each value is a block, and the material (i.e. - stone, dirt, etc.) of the block is based on that value.
OR
Each value is a chunk of the map, and the material (i.e. - stone, dirt, etc.) that the chunk is made of.
OR
I have completely no idea what I am doing and need the answer given to me lol.
On a side note, I changed the way I was looking at it so that if the value was >= 0.5 it was land, if not open space. The result is what appears to be a pretty natural looking cave network. So I guess I could use it that way as well, to tell me if there are caves.