Java Edition removed features

Since the beginning of the development of Java Edition, there have been a number of features that were removed from the game. These features may have been replaced, or a developer decided against the feature later on.

Note: This page documents only game features that were removed; features of a particular game element that were removed are noted in that element's history. See Java Edition unused features for features that are still currently in the game.

Player features

Score indicator showing in-game

In Survival Test and early Indev versions, the score was displayed in the upper right corner.

This was removed in Java Edition Indev 0.31 20100130.

The removed score indicator.

Player stats

The removed player stats.

In early Indev versions, the player could open the inventory screen and view their name and three stats: "ATK", "DEF", and “SPD”, probably standing for attack, defense, and speed. These existed only briefly; when asked, Notch stated he could not remember exactly why they were implemented and subsequently removed, and he assumed they were placeholders for "vague plans".

The arrow indicator

Inventory changes

An inventory rewrite was originally partially implemented in snapshot 14w07a, but it was reverted before the release of 1.8.​

Old multiplayer player death animation

Before 1.6.1, on player death while playing in multiplayer, the player would stay standing, leap a little bit, and then disappear. In 1.6.1, this was replaced with the player falling onto the side and then disappearing.

Notch dropping an apple

Before Beta 1.8, players named "Notch" would drop an apple along with the rest of their inventory upon death. Apples were otherwise unobtainable.

On-screen version number

Version display in the top left of the screen (Java Edition Beta 1.6 Test Build 3).

All-text version display in the top left of the screen (PC Gamer Demo).

Starting with Classic 0.0.2a, all subsequent versions until RC2 had text displayed in the top left corner of the screen that displayed the version. Versions between Beta 1.6.5 and Beta 1.7.3 did not have this text. From Classic 0.0.2a to Indev 0.31 20100206-1437, only the version number was displayed, but after Indev it switched from being "0.31" to being called "Minecraft Indev" (Indev 20100206-2034), the word "Minecraft" was shown before the version number. In the Alpha development stage, the text read "Minecraft Alpha v#.#.#(_0#)." In the Beta development stage, the text read "Minecraft Beta #.#(_0#)." This feature was only partially removed, for, among other things, the version number can now be shown by opening the debug screen while in-game. Before Alpha v1.2.2, the version number did not display on the main menu screen.

"Unlicensed Copy" message

"Unlicensed Copy" message in the top left of the screen (Java Edition Beta 1.7.3).

From Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 to Beta 1.7.3, a message reading "Minecraft Beta #.#.#(_0#) Unlicensed Copy :( (Or logged in from another location). Purchase at minecraft.net" was shown in the top-left corner if the player was detected to be running an unlicensed or cracked version of the game.​ This would also force the version number to be displayed, including in Beta 1.6.5 and later which normally had the version number hidden. The message was removed in Beta 1.8.

Achievements

Achievements were available between Beta 1.5 and full release 1.12 (snapshot 17w06a). They were ultimately replaced by advancements. Editions other than Java Edition still have achievements instead, although they use a different system, being synced per Xbox Live or PlayStation account and not separated by worlds.

Old walking animation for players

Before Alpha v1.0.9, the walking animation for the player and the human mob was different; the player and the human mob would swing their arms wildly to their sides while walking like cartoons.

Pre-loaded items

Different versions in Minecraft's history had items pre-spawned in the player's inventory. Here is a table below:

Version range		Block	Count	Slot	CollapseObtainable?
First	Last
0.26st	0.30-s		10	8	No
in-1223-1	in-1223-3		99	5	No
			99	6	No
			99	7	No
			99	8	No
in-1231-1			99	0	No
			99	1	No
			99	2	No
			99	3	No
in-1231-2			99	7	No
			99	8	No
in-104-1	in-107-3		99	6	No
			99	7	No
			99	8	No
in-109-1			99	5	No
			99	6	No
			99	7	No
			99	8	No
in-109-2			99	2	No
			99	3	No
			99	4	Yes
			99	5	No
			99	6	No
			99	7	No
			99	8	No
in-110	in-113		1	0	No
			1	1	No
			1	2	No
			1	3	No
			99	4	No
			99	5	No
			99	6	No
			99	7	No
			99	8	No
			99	9	No
in-114			1	0	No
			1	1	No
			1	2	No
			1	3	No
			99	4	No
			99	5	No
			99	6	No
			99	7	No
			99	8	No
			99	9	No
			99	10	No
in-122			1	0	No
			1	1	No
			1	2	No
			1	3	No
			50	4	No
			50	5	No
			50	6	No
			50	7	No
			50	8	No
			50	9	No
			5	10	No
			5	11	No
			1	12 ?	No
			50	13 ?	No
in-129-1	in-130		1	8	No
inf-227-1	inf-227-2		999	0	No
			990	1	No
inf-313			999	0	No
			999	1	No
			999	2	No
			999	3	No
			999	4	No
			999	5	No
			999	7	No
			999	8	No
inf-316			999	0	No
			999	1	No
			999	2	No
			999	3	No
			999	4	No
			999	5	No
			999	6	No
			999	7	Yes
			999	8	Yes
inf-320	inf-325		64	0	Yes
			64	1	Yes
			64	2	Yes
			64	3	Yes
			64	4	No
			64	5	No
			64	6	No
			64	7	Yes
			64	8	Yes
Alpha 1.0.17			64	0	Yes
Beta 1.3-1			64	0	Yes
			64	1	Yes
			64	2	Yes
			64	3	Yes
			1	4	Yes
			63	5	Yes
Beta 1.9 pre3-1	Beta 1.9 pre3-2		64	0	Yes
			64	1	Yes
			64	2	Yes
			64	3	No
Indev 0.31 20091223-1457 (Creative)	Release 1.2.5		64	0	Yes
			64	1	Yes
			64	2	Yes
			64	3	Yes
			64	4	Yes
			64	5	Yes
			64	6	Yes
			64	7	Yes
			64	8	Yes

Since Java Edition 1.3.1, creating a new world in Creative mode no longer spawns the player with any items in their inventory.

High-distance anomalies

Many of the game's mechanics would break down in strange ways when at a large distance from the origin of the world. The vast majority of these effects have been patched, or at least minimised, in modern versions.

Hard limits

For elements of the game which are integer-aligned, such as the positions of blocks, Java Edition uses integer data types, which can be either 32-bit or 64-bit. 32-bit integers were more commonly used in older versions, which allowed for 4,294,967,296 possible distinct integer values, ranging from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. Exceeding these boundaries, such as by using an external editor to move the player to beyond 2,147,483,647 blocks from the origin as to force the game to load blocks beyond this position, often would result in major game-breaking bugs and crashes.

Accessing such regions is now much more difficult than it was previously, as distance is now much more restrictive, requiring modifications to the game to allow these limits to be exposed.

Floating point imprecision

For elements of the game which are not integer-aligned, such as the positions of entities, Java Edition uses 64-bit floating point (or "double") values for arithmetic and storage of relevant variables. However, there are odd cases in which a 32-bit floating point value is used instead. Such cases are rare in the modern game (a full list of those which still exist in 1.20 can be found at Java Edition distance effects), however older versions of the game used 32-bit values (or unnecessarily casted from and to them, resulting in data loss which could have easily been avoided without this pointless casting) much more heavily, resulting in a plethora of strange gameplay bugs which were tied to how far the player was from the center of the world, getting twice as intense for every integer power of 2 blocks the player went from the center.

The rendering precision loss bug, one of the more famous float bugs.

One of the most notable floating point precision loss bugs is where the rendering of the world stops being accurate depending on the player's position. Commonly experienced alongside (and frequently, and incorrectly, blamed on) the Far Lands, the position at which blocks render does not match up with that of entities and other world elements such as the hitboxes of blocks. At 8,388,608 blocks and beyond, the game assumes the player is standing at the edge or corner of each block, and always renders the blocks of the world as if they player is standing at one of those corners. This effect is difficult to describe in text, and is best experienced firsthand.

Most of the other issues regarding floating point imprecision deal with the creation of particles, spawning of entities, and (prior to their standardisation in 1.8 with json files, which fixed all of these permanently) the geometrical distortion of block models.

A comprehensive list of since-fixed issues, as well as breakdowns of how they progress, can be found at Java Edition distance effects/Historical effects.

Boundary effects

Boundary effects refer to oddities which arise due to hardcoded numerical limits in the game, such as the 30 million wall (as opposed to hard limits, which are defined by the programming language and/or computer architecture rather than the game code).

The current world boundary as of 1.21 is a "pseudo-wall" which exists at 30 million blocks from the origin, a chunk beyond the world border. (This is defined as a "pseudo-wall" rather than a true wall as rather than being solid and preventing passage like the world border or a solid block does, the player's position is instead set to 30 million by the game if the player attempts to exceed it, which can be seen by the fact that the walking animation, step sounds and view bobbing can still be experienced by walking into the wall, as does the sounds of flying with an elytra.)

However, previous versions had much stranger effects at great distances. The world boundary was something commonly experienced in Classic and Indev due to worlds being small by design. The first versions of Infdev, which did away with such boundaries, therefore had no such effects, instead exposing the existing hard limits of the game (although experiencing these was effectively impossible due to floating point bugs rendering the game unplayable much earlier).

The version of Infdev released on March 13, 2010 reimplemented a boundary at 32 million blocks, likely to prevent access to the then-relatively-new Far Lands which existed at a bit over 33 million blocks. This boundary was considerably different and buggier than those from Indev, although this was largely to be expected due to it being effectively impossible to reach legitimately. Beyond this 32 million limit, blocks would no longer exist at all, and give way to an empty void. When major changes to world generation brought the Far Lands much closer to the world origin later that same month, however, the world boundary still remained at 32 million, meaning the Far Lands were completely possible to reach without modding the game.

Looking back at the world from beyond the 32 million limit.

Updating blocks next to this void would cause the game to freeze due to it having to calculate an immense amount of lighting updates. This void could still be traversed by entities normally until the April 13 build, in which entities that render it would become stuck in place and jitter eternally. This was later fixed in an unknown version.

In Alpha v1.2.0, the boundary effects would get stranger than before. While previously no blocks would render beyond this point, Alpha v1.2.0 and onwards would cause a strange phenomenon in which chunks would appear to generate, but would be intangible, appear fully lit, and generated features such as trees and ores would not generate at all in these chunks.

The corner of the world in 1.0.0.

For reasons which remain completely unknown to this day, Beta 1.8 would shrink the world boundaries inwards from 32 million blocks out to only 30 million blocks out. While the effects would remain similar, with blocks beyond the 30 million boundary appearing fully lit and ignoring collision and feature generation, these fake chunks would only generate a small distance out from this boundary, stopping at 30,000,064, or four chunks from the boundary. In addition, any entity attempting to surpass 30,000,032 would again be stuck in a jittery stasis, with players in particular having their heads twist unnaturally if looking around after this point (a bug that was patched in 12w03a, where facing direction would no longer change and preventing this unnatural twisting).

With the client-server split in snapshot 12w18a for 1.3 (a change which broke many other things about the game), the stasis bug was actually fixed, and fake chunks could be generated beyond the 30,000,064 point, allowing for the player to keep flying outwards until 32,000,000 blocks, where they would be kicked out of the game due to being in an illegal position, revealing that not all elements of the 32,000,000 limit had been removed from the game yet. 12w27a, a later snapshot for 1.3, would clamp nether portal positions to be within the 30 million limit.

1.7 and 1.8 started to make major changes to the world boundary to bring it to its modern state. 1.7 first made all blocks beyond 30 million completely solid, including air. Said wall could still be surpassed, however, by flying over it, as it only extended to the 32-bit limit on the Y-axis, allowing for 32 million blocks to be reached once more and the illegal position game crash triggered. The boundary became more unstable from version to version throughout 1.8's development, with the end result on its release being that chunks beyond 30 million blocks would no longer render, and teleporting beyond 30 million would crash the game. 1.9 would allow chunks beyond 30 million blocks to render once more, and prevent teleportation beyond 30 million blocks at all. Little has changed about the world boundary between this point and 1.21.

Far Lands

Basic theory

The Far Lands were a complex terrain phenomenon which arise due to a major bug in terrain generation works. Generally, "far lands" are the result of what happens when a given noise generator exceeds the largest value it can handle, resulting in an integer overflow and resulting in the generated values reaching unnatural magnitudes. The term "Far Lands" in isolation most commonly refers to what results from "low noise" and "high noise" overflowing simultaneously.

What the Far Lands are not

Due to many occurrences at high distance being lumped together with each other, confusion often arises as to what is related to or caused by the Far Lands, and what is not. The following is a list of things which are commonly misattributed to being a product, effect or even type of the Far Lands, despite not being so.

Precision loss errors are not caused by the Far Lands

The position where the world appears to render is considerably offset at the point where the Far Lands begin in Beta 1.7.3 and earlier, with a magnitude of one block, with the player appearing to be at the edges and corners of blocks at all times.

However, this is purely a floating-point bug, and exists whether or not the Far Lands themselves do. This can be demonstrated by the following:

• Noticing that the precision loss is a gradual change, which increases at each power of 2. This is in stark contrast to the Far Lands, which happen immediately due to integer overflow.
• Backporting a Superflat world (with flat terrain where the Far Lands would be) from 1.1 to Beta 1.7.3, and noticing that the effect persists in said version, proving that it's clearly not linked to terrain. While Far Lands chunks still generate outside of what superflat chunks were generated in 1.1, these still are unrelated.
• Modding the game can be done to either patch out this precision loss issue or the Far Lands individually. This proves their existence to be completely independent.
• Generating the Far Lands in any version between the March 27 and June 18 builds of Infdev inclusive. Whereas the Far Lands clearly generate in these versions, the precision loss bug was first introduced in the June 24th build.

This is also true of every other precision loss bug, especially those which were not fixed in Beta 1.8 and persisted into later versions after the Far Lands were removed in said version, demonstrating that they are two completely different things which are associated with each other due to happening at high distances.

The Stripe Lands are not a type of Far Lands

The Stripe Lands, a mostly Bedrock Edition-exclusive phenomenon which can be seen in Java Edition only through extensive modding, are another example of floating-point precision loss, and are not a terrain bug.

Fake chunks are not caused by the Far Lands

"Fake" chunks at the world boundary are another anomaly that happens at high distances. Occurring considerably past the Far Lands' beginning, they are commonly said to be a "part" or "layer" of the Far Lands. While they are among the interesting effects which can be experienced when moving high distances from the world origin, their occurrence is a distinct phenomenon, and, to an extent, actually intended. This is further reinforced by them being at a rather round number (32 million), rather than the seemingly overall arbitrary 12,550,824 of the Far Lands, or power-of-two values such as 16,777,216 where precision loss worsens.

Hard limits are not caused by the Far Lands

While the Far Lands themselves are technically a hard limit due to arising from integer overflow, they are treated solely as a terrain phenomenon, and the game still functions fine with them. Integer overflows in other cases such as player position are much more dangerous and much harder to reach, and are considered separately.

The Far Lands

The "corner" of the Far Lands, at ±12,550,821 on both X and Z axes.

In their most well-known iteration, the Far Lands manifested as a sort of "wall" which would extend from the lowest point of the world to the very top. This wall contained a series of holes in it, with these holes reaching back almost infinitely, with only minor changes even after millions of blocks. The density of a cross-section of this wall was roughly 50%, with solid portions and hollow portions being around equal. Given their positions at the four sides of a world, there regions are often referred to as the "Edge Far Lands" when distinction from other regions of a world is necessary, and, due to their "Swiss cheese"-like formation, informally as "The Loop".

Since the Far Lands existed on both the X and Z axes, it is entirely possible for them to "intersect" each other when surpassing their starting point on both axes. The resulting terrain, named the "Corner Far Lands" in analogy to the vertices of a square, is markedly different from that of the edge regions: the world appears to be solid layers of terrain arranged on top of each other with air gaps in between. Due to this distinctive morphology, the Corner Far Lands are also informally referred to as "The Stack". The terrain seen in these regions is comparable to that which is seen in the Nether. Often, major diagonal or oblique patterns can be seen within the generated terrain, which, if they exist, are especially obvious at the beginning of the corner Far Lands.

In the unmodified game, only four sets each of the edge and corner Far Lands can exist in a world, from the noise overflowing on the X and Z axes. However, game modifications can modify aspects of either chunk saving or terrain generation in ways that ultimately allows for noise to overflow on the Y axis as well. Such modifications reveal two more sets of Edge Far Lands for a total of six sets (corresponding to the faces of a cube), eight sets of Corner Far Lands from these Y axis Edge Far Lands intersecting X and Z axis Edge Far Lands for a total of twelve sets (corresponding to the edges of a cube), and new regions in which all three axes simultaneously overflow due to Y axis Edge Far Lands intersecting the existing Corner Far Lands, with eight of these regions in total (corresponding to the vertices of a cube). These regions, referred to as the "Vertex Far Lands", are incredibly unstable; sometimes these regions are completely solid, other times are completely empty, and other times still feature incredibly strange terrain atypical of even "The Loop" or "The Stack".

With default settings, the noise would overflow at twice the distance on the Y axis as it does on the X and Z axes, at around 25,101,640 blocks.

The Farther Lands

The Edge Far Lands are on the right, with the comparatively featureless Edge Farther Lands on the left.

The Farther Lands is the name given to another noise overflow which, by default, happens at a greater distance than the normal Far Lands. Whereas the usual Far Lands arise from the overflowing of "low noise" and "high noise", the Farther Lands sees "selector noise" break down instead. Low noise and high noise are two different noise generators which the game uses to generate the potential fundamental shape of terrain, whereas selector noise chooses whether low noise or high noise is used to actually generate the terrain at that given point. When the conventional Far Lands start, despite both low noise and high noise overflowing simultaneously, selector noise still functions normally, meaning that there is still a large amount of possible variation in the shape of the Far Lands.

When selector noise does eventually break, which happens at roughly 1,004,065,920 blocks from the world origin, it follows that the variation between low and high noise also breaks down. Like how the usual Far Lands is a series of straight tunnels, the Farther Lands divides the world into a series of straight regions, with low noise used exclusively in one region and high noise in others. As such, the variation usually seen in the Far Lands vanishes after the Farther Lands.

The Corner Farther Lands take this effect to an extreme: while the normal Corner Far Lands are rich in nuance, the Corner Farther Lands are almost devoid of it. The beginning of the corner makes this all the more obvious, and also highlights edge Farther Lands-corner Far Lands intersections, making the aforementioned straight line regions clear to see.

Before inf-20100327

The stone wall at 33,554,432 blocks from the origin in inf-20100227-1433.

Terrain generation was much simpler in versions before March 27, 2010. While in modern versions, the noise generator used for terrain is 3D, earlier versions used a purely 2D noise generator for the world instead. The resulting terrain was much more cliff-based as a result, and overhangs were an impossibility. In addition, noise incremented much slower than the modern noise generator does, resulting in it overflowing at 33,554,432 blocks out (coincidentally a power of 2).

Rather than featuring a series of holes, this noise generator instead created a huge, featureless wall as it broke, as the purely 2D nature of the noise forbids any overhangs from generating. This wall is completely solid stone and extends infinitely outwards when it starts. Occasionally, the faces of this wall may appear ridged like a radiator or heat sink, resulting in a slightly more gradual transformation of the terrain.

Further investigations

While largely removed as of Beta 1.8, simple modifications to the game can effectively reintroduce them, in which case they behave effectively identically to how they did before, but much more stable due to the fixing of the vast majority of high-distance precision loss effects in earlier versions which caused lag and hindered movement. In addition, several aspects of the Far Lands persisted into later versions:

• The Far Lands also existed on the y-axis at twice the distance as they did on the x-axis. While obviously unobservable due to blocks not being able to exist at all outside of a certain height range, abuse of the Old Customized world type in which the height scale is increased to absurd values could allow for the positive Y-axis Far Lands, or "Sky Far Lands", to generate within vanilla bounds without modding.
• Beta 1.8 fixed the Far Lands by adding code to the noise generator to have it repeat after a certain amount of units. It is possible to have the amount of times the generator repeats to itself overflow, although the effects of this are not possible to see in vanilla worlds (it would only break down after almost 54 quadrillion blocks). However, further exploitation of Old Customized to set the coordinate scale to even more ludicrous values brings this overflow point into vanilla bounds once more. As setting it to values like these causes normal terrain to become incredibly chaotic, the point at where it breaks is difficult to see.
  • For low and high noise, these overflowed regions are called the Fartherer Lands, and for selector noise, the Farthest Lands.

Modding has allowed for y-axis Far and Farther Lands, the Fartherer and Farthest Lands, and 64-bit versions of the Far and Farther Lands (distinct from the Fartherer and Farthest Lands in while they appear at the same locations as them, they result from 64-bit noise breaking normally rather than the modulo that prevents 32-bit noise from breaking itself) to be seen in their natural habitats.

Generated structures

Brick pyramid

Brick pyramids were tall experimental generated structures made up exclusively of bricks. They were added in Java Edition Infdev 20100227-1414 and they were removed from the game in Java Edition Infdev 20100327.

These were entirely composed of bricks - the pyramids did not have any rooms inside, however caves could generate through them Java Edition Infdev 20100325-1640 due to caves being able to generate through any blocks at the time (including trees and other structures they should not be able to).

These were most likely intended for testing structure generation in infinite worlds. As blocks did not drop items at the start of Infdev due to entity code still being reworked, brick blocks could not be collected from pyramids for most of their existence.

Starting house

The starting house was a building which generated at the center of Indev maps. The player would spawn inside of the starting house when the world was first generated.

This structure was added in Java Edition Indev 0.31 20100124, and was initially comprised of mossy cobblestone, with two Torches inside. The starting house was reworked in Java Edition Indev 20100213, having a stone floor and walls made of oak planks.

Early iterations of the starting house contained a series of chests, which would harbor almost every block and item in the entire game at that point. These chests went through a series of changes, before being removed from the starting house entirely in later iterations.

The starting house was removed at Java Edition Infdev 20100227-1414 due to terrain generation being redone to accommodate infinite worlds, ditching the limited worlds of Indev and earlier.

Obsidian wall

In Java Edition Infdev 20100227-1414, two obsidian walls generated in the world as to mark the orthogonal directions. One of these walls would appear where the X-axis was at 0, and another where the Z-axis was 0. The player would spawn at the point where these two walls intersected.

Like with the brick pyramids, these were a debugging feature, and were not implemented as a source of obsidian for players due to the inability for blocks to drop items at the time.

These walls would no longer generate as of Java Edition Infdev 20100313.

Monolith

Monoliths were a terrain bug which existed from late Infdev to late Alpha. Occurring when the noise generators for handling the shape of terrain output specific values, these structures would consist of the terrain being "inverted" in a given region of space. Outwardly, they appear as sheer stone cliffs which reach the top of the world. Ore and sediment blobs could be seen to generate in the sides of these, as could water and lava springs. Further examination of these reveal that the area underneath these monoliths is completely empty all the way down to the bedrock layers, further proving that the terrain is "inverted", as air regions and solid regions have completely switched places. Water would generate in this empty space below monoliths, as the game would consider any air space below a given point that did not belong to a cave or other structure as an "ocean", and fill it with water accordingly.

Due to being "inverted" sections of terrain, it is exceedingly likely that monoliths would generate up infinitely (or at least up until the vertical Far Lands) were they given sufficient space. Due to their version range, they were limited to 128 blocks. Monoliths could also fully enclose regions of normal terrain - when seen from below, these would appear as sheer cliffs, like all non-monolith terrain.

Monoliths came with the Java Edition Infdev 20100611, which overhauled terrain a third time in the Infdev development period, they persisted up until Java Edition Alpha v1.1.2_01. Alpha v1.2.0 redid terrain generation once more, such that completely different noise generators were used for terrain, which no longer had the potential to cause these bugs. However, despite this, Old Customized worlds were still capable of generating monolith structures by defining a negative "Biome Scale Weight" value from snapshot 14w17a for Java Edition 1.8 to snapshot 18w05a for 1.13, prior to the removal of the "Customized" world type altogether in the next 1.13 snapshot 18w06a. Monoliths could also be generated from 1.16 to 1.17.1 by using customized worlds to set a biome's scale to a negative number.

• 

  A large monolith as seen from atop another large monolith.

• 

  A section of regular terrain inside a monolith.

• 

  The area underneath a monolith, next to a beach.

• 

  Same position, different angle.

• 

  Looking at the beach from directly below the monolith.

• 

  The previously mentioned regular terrain affecting the area underneath the monolith.

• 

  An isometric render of a map with many monoliths. (12 total)

Placeholder trees

There are several cases in the game in which unique species of tree use the logs and leaves primarily associated with other trees. Two prominent examples are pine trees, which use spruce logs and leaves, and swamp trees, which use oak logs and leaves, rather than either of these having dedicated blocks. As a result of this, they cannot be grown from saplings, and can only be encountered when generating new chunks.

In Java Edition 1.7.2's development, when biomes were being added to the game, two trees were added to the then-new biomes which also reused the logs and leaves of existing trees. However, these were a temporary measure, as later in development, they were given logs and leaves of their own, alongside saplings, planks and further wood products.

Specifically, these were the acacia tree, and the dark oak tree. The acacia tree reused jungle logs and oak leaves, and dark oak trees used spruce logs and oak leaves.

• 

  An acacia tree with jungle logs and oak leaves.

• 

  A dark oak tree with spruce logs and oak leaves.

Village aspects

Villages have seen multiple changes in generation since their introduction. Due to these changes, some may consider villages which generated in previous versions, or at least certain buildings within them, as "removed" structures.

Old village

Old villages and old zombie villages could generate in plains, savanna, taiga, and desert biomes. The type of village, and therefore the style of all structures within it, was determined by the biome where the village well was located. All village biome variants were essentially palette swaps of each other. The "old villages" were not known as such until Java Edition 1.14.

Gravel roads

Before Java Edition 1.10, villages used gravel with cobblestone underneath to signify roads; however, in Java Edition 1.10, grass paths were added to signify village roads. However, grass paths sensibly were only generated where they replaced grass blocks, and gravel paths still existed until Java Edition 1.14, when the jigsaw system broke it.

Savanna village

Prior to Java Edition 1.10, plains villages would generate in savanna biomes. Plains villages was replaced by savanna villages made out of acacia derived blocks.

Desert village

Prior to Java Edition 1.3.1, plains villages would generate in desert biomes. Plains villages was replaced by desert villages made out of sandstone derived blocks.

Prior to Java Edition 1.8, plains wells would generate in desert villages. Plains wells was replaced by desert wells made out of sandstone derived blocks.

Glass pillars

Glass Pillar

Biomes	Any
Generates in existing chunks	No
Consists of	Glass

{
    "title": "Glass Pillar",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "Any",
            "label": "(link to Biome article, displayed as Biomes)"
        },
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "Generates in<br>existing chunks"
        },
        {
            "field": "<span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:BlockSprite glass.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Glass|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Glass article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Glass</span>)</span>",
            "label": "Consists of"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [],
    "images": [
        "Glass Pillar.png"
    ]
}

Glass pillars were a debug feature used to mark the location of strongholds, since the eye of ender did not lead to strongholds yet. One pillar extended from the main entrance and another from the portal room, both from the Stone Bricks to the build limit. They were accidentally left in the public release of Java Edition Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3, and were removed in the next update.

• 

  A glass pillar reaching into the sky.

• 

  A glass pillar reaching into the ground, showing a stronghold hidden beneath.

Map settings

Color and cloud customisation

In Indev versions of Minecraft, it was possible to customize the color of the sky, fog, and clouds, as well as the height of the clouds, via map editing, but this feature was removed in Infdev. Unlike some customizations now available via custom world generation, these are yet to see a return.

Isometric screenshot

An isometric screenshot.

An isometric screenshot displaying the bug of not capturing chunks, which are not in the player's FOV.

In the Indev versions of Minecraft, players could take a screenshot of the map from an isometric perspective using F7. When the game captured an isometric image, it would save the current location of all mobs and show any and all alterations to the map the player had made that would be visible from the perspective of the sun (at sunrise). The player would not be visible unless the player was in third-person view before taking the isometric screenshot.

The isometric screenshot would save to their local user folder as "mc_map_####.png" where #### represents the number of the screenshot starting at 0000 up to 9999.

There are some limitations that existed with the screenshots:

• They could capture the player's sprite only when in third-person view.
• Due to a glitch, the screenshot would render only those blocks that are in the player's FOV, and everything else is either black or shows underground sections that would have been obstructed.

This feature was removed in Infdev due to the addition of infinite worlds.

Another buggy isometric screenshot.

Indev map settings

During the development of Indev, there were settings to change level's theme, type, shape and size.

"Winter Mode" map type

A "Winter Mode" world.

A rare occurrence: reeds generated in a "Winter Mode" world.

"Winter Mode" was a randomly occurring map type in Alpha. It was added on July 9, 2010, in Alpha v1.0.4 and was the first "biome" to appear in Minecraft.

There were a couple of differences compared to normal worlds. First, there was the presence of snowflakes, which fell constantly. There were four different kinds of snowflakes. These snowflakes would create snow on surfaces directly exposed to the sky, provided that it was a solid block. Due to a lack of unfrozen water, reeds were rare. The second element unique to "Winter Mode" was the presence of ice. When a map was generated, most exposed water blocks would be frozen into ice. The water did not freeze completely near gravel beaches. The third element was a decrease in the spawning rate of passive mobs.

Whether a world was in "Winter Mode" was determined with a 25% chance at creation.

"Winter Mode" was removed in Alpha v1.2.0 with the addition of proper biomes.

Biomes prior to 1.7.2

Versions prior to 1.7.2 had two biomes that were later removed from the world generator. Despite being unused, they continued to exist until Java Edition 1.18, in which mountain edge got removed.

The following biomes became unused in 1.7.2:

• Mountain edge (now available in the "Buffet" world type)
• Frozen ocean (restored in 1.13 as a very different biome)

Biomes prior to Beta 1.8

In Beta 1.8, biomes received a major overhaul, removing and changing many of them. Prior to these changes, there were 13 biome types that were much smaller and less distinct.

Biomes prior to 1.18

In 1.18, terrain height is no longer controlled by biome, so the following height variations biome have been removed and had their code merged into the main one:

"Customized" world type

"Customized" was a world type that gave control over many settings that affected terrain generation, such as ores, sea level, biomes, structures, and many variables that govern the random shape of the terrain. It was introduced in snapshot 14w17a for 1.8, and was removed in snapshot 18w06a for 1.13. Although customized worlds were added back in the 1.16 snapshot 20w21a, there is currently no in-game menu to modify worlds; custom worlds can be generated only by importing a JSON file.

Sounds

Game sounds

Name	Version added	Version removed	Old track	New track
Arrow Firing/Throwing Projectiles	Indev 20100104-2154 ?	1.0.0 RC1
Arrow Contact	Indev 20100104-2154 ?	1.0.0 RC1
Doors, Trapdoors and Fence gates opening	Infdev 20100607 ?	1.0.0 RC1		N/A
Doors, Trapdoors and Fence gates opening (Second Version)	1.0.0 RC1	15w43a		Wooden door: Iron door: Wooden Trapdoor: Fence Gate:
Doors, Trapdoors and Fence gates closing	Infdev 20100607 ?	1.0.0 RC1		N/A
Doors, Trapdoors and Fence gates closing (Second Version)	1.0.0 RC1	15w43a		Wooden door: Iron door: Wooden Trapdoor: Fence Gate:
Explosion	?	1.0.0 RC1
Splashing	?	12w38a
Flint and Steel	Indev 20100110 ?	1.0.0 RC1
Lava	?	?
Leveling up	Java Edition Beta 1.8 Pre-release	1.0.0 RC1

Mob sounds

Name	Version added	Version removed	Old track	New track
Creeper Hurt 1	Alpha v1.0.3	Alpha v1.2.0_02
Creeper Hurt 2	Alpha v1.0.3	Alpha v1.2.0_02
Creeper Hurt 3	Alpha v1.0.3	Alpha v1.2.0_02
Creeper Hurt 4	Alpha v1.0.3	Alpha v1.2.0_02
Skeleton Hurt 1	Alpha v1.0.3	12w38a
Skeleton Hurt 2	Alpha v1.0.3	12w38a
Skeleton Hurt 3	Alpha v1.0.3	12w38a
Skeleton Hurt 4	Alpha v1.0.3	12w38a
Skeleton death	Alpha v1.0.3	12w38a
Cow Ambient (Original)	Alpha v1.0.8	Alpha v.1.0.9		N/A
Cow Ambient 1	Alpha v.1.0.9	12w38a
Cow Ambient 2	Alpha v.1.0.9	12w38a
Cow Ambient 3	Alpha v.1.0.9	12w38a
Cow Ambient 4	Alpha v.1.0.9	12w38a
Cow Hurt (Original)	Alpha v1.0.8	Alpha v.1.0.9		N/A
Cow Hurt 1	Alpha v.1.0.9	12w38a
Cow Hurt 2	Alpha v.1.0.9	12w38a
Cow Hurt 3	Alpha v.1.0.9	12w38a

Player sounds

Name	Version added	Version removed	Old track	New track
Old Hurt	?	1.0.0 RC1
Hurtflesh1	1.0.0 RC1	12w38a		N/A
Hurtflesh2	1.0.0 RC1	12w38a		N/A
Hurtflesh3	1.0.0 RC1	12w38a		N/A
Fallbig1	1.0.0 RC1	12w38a
Fallbig2	1.0.0 RC1	12w38a
Fallsmall	1.0.0 RC1	12w38a

Block sounds

Name	Old Track	New Track
Decorated pot break 1
Decorated pot break 2
Decorated pot break 3
Decorated pot break 4
Decorated pot step 1
Decorated pot step 2
Decorated pot step 3
Decorated pot step 4

Audio loops

Loops were unused sounds, found in the game files, and were possibly meant for when the player is in a specific type of location (i.e., in caves, forests, oceans and beside a waterfall). These sound effects only appeared in C418's June 4, 2009 Sound Test.

They were found in .minecraft/resources/sound/loops/, and could be converted to reveal four loops, of birds chirping, cave chimes, ocean and waterfall noises.

Loop	Track
Birds Chirping
Cave Chimes
Ocean
Waterfall

calm4.ogg

calm4.ogg was a music file that was included by Notch accidentally in an Alpha build of Minecraft when he used it to test the music system. The track was created by Notch himself, and is 3 minutes and 13 seconds long. It consists of an upbeat synth, battle-like tune. At 1:36, a slowed-down sample of Notch saying "Mojang Specifications" can be heard.

The track is believed to have appeared and disappeared in the downloaded game files multiple times, but exact dates or versions are unknown.

With the introduction of the 1.6.1 launcher, playing older versions with the track calm4.ogg does not allow the track to be heard, since music is downloaded separately from the jar files.

On February 1, 2020, calm4.ogg was reuploaded by Notch to his SoundCloud page under the name "Magnetic Circuit" after he was questioned about it on Twitter.

Unused

These features never had any functionality in-game.

Other

"Play Tutorial Level" button

An unclickable "Play Tutorial Level" button was added to the main menu during Indev. With the addition of texture packs in Alpha v1.2.2, the button was removed. No tutorial level had actually existed during that time.

Resources

Fluff.png.

Textures

Fluff.png

In Infdev, a texture called Fluff.png was added. It was used as a texture for clouds from Infdev 20100611 to Infdev 20100618, but became unused in Infdev 20100624 and was removed by Alpha v1.2.2.

Clouds using the fluff.png texture in Minecraft Infdev

Minecart texture

The minecart dirt texture .

The texture from the minecart model is rarely visible. The texture appears to be dirt, which is an artifact of when the minecart used to act as a portable chest. The "dirt" level used to raise when items were put into it. The texture still appeared inside minecarts until Java Edition 1.18 Pre-release 2.

Purple arrow

Purple arrow

The purple arrow shot by a skeleton in Survival Test.

Purple arrows were shot by skeletons in Survival Test versions from 0.25. They acted the same as regular arrows, but could not be picked up. The purple arrow used a texture on the same sheet as the normal arrows, but the texture is not currently in use.

Despite being unused, their texture was updated with the normal arrow's in the April Fools' snapshot 15w14a. With the addition of a new arrow texture in Java Edition 1.9, the original arrow texture, including the purple arrows, became entirely unused. The original texture was removed in snapshot 21w13a.

chunkinfo command

From 1.8 (snapshot 14w30a) to 1.13 (snapshot 17w45a), the file en_us.lang contained translation strings for a /chunkinfo command, which never existed in game. The following keys existed:

commands.chunkinfo.usage=/chunkinfo [<x> <y> <z>]
commands.chunkinfo.location=Chunk location: (%s, %s, %s)
commands.chunkinfo.noChunk=No chunk found at chunk position %s, %s, %s
commands.chunkinfo.notEmpty=Chunk is not empty.
commands.chunkinfo.empty=Chunk is empty.
commands.chunkinfo.notCompiled=Chunk is not compiled.
commands.chunkinfo.compiled=Chunk is compiled.
commands.chunkinfo.hasNoRenderableLayers=Chunk has no renderable layers.
commands.chunkinfo.hasLayers=Chunk has layers: %s
commands.chunkinfo.isEmpty=Chunk has empty layers: %s
commands.chunkinfo.vertices=%s layer's buffer contains %s vertices
commands.chunkinfo.data=First 64 vertices are: %s

It is unknown if this command was used for development or was simply a dropped feature.

Other

command_blocks.pdn

command_blocks.pdn

command_blocks.pdn was an unused file added in 15w34a. This file was created with the Paint.NET program and, presumably, was used in the creation of the textures for the impulse, chain and repeat types of command block, added in the same snapshot.

The file also contains multiple layers. From 10 layers, by default, only "Back Shadow", "Back Panel", and "Orange Back" layers are visible, forming the back texture for the impulse command block. The "Background" name is given to the first created layer in an image created by Paint.NET. This layer contains the old texture for command block, which implies that all other layers were created based upon it. Compared to the final textures, the layers included in command_blocks.pdn lack animation frames and use different colors for the individual “lights” on each “panel”.

Layer	Layer name	Blend mode	Visible
	Arrow Shadow	Multiply	No
	Arrow Panel	Normal	No
	Front Shadow	Multiply	No
	Front Panel	Normal	No
	Back Shadow	Multiply	Yes
	Back Panel	Normal	Yes
	Green Background	Normal	No
	Purple Background	Normal	No
	Orange Back	Normal	Yes
	Background	Normal	No

command_blocks.pdn was removed in 15w34b.

Spawning nether portals with F4

In Java Edition Alpha v1.2.2a, players had the ability to spawn nether portals by pressing F4. In Alpha v1.2.2b, spawning nether portals using F4 was removed.

Time control with F6 and F7

In Beta 1.8 Pre-release, as a result of remaining debug code, players had the ability to use F6 and F7 to control in-game time. In Beta 1.8 Pre-release 2, the functionality of F6 and F7 was removed.

Toggle rain with F5

In early Indev versions, pressing F5 would toggle between rain and clear.

"Player Activity" button

The "Player Activity" button in "Minecraft Realms" was added in 1.5, but it was removed in 1.14.4 for unknown reasons. This button was used to show the online activities of players.

Texture pack

Texture packs were added in Alpha v1.2.2, and were replaced with resource packs in snapshot 13w24a for 1.6.1.

"3D Anaglyph" option

"3D Anaglyph" option before 1.13.

3D Anaglyph image from Notch's blog.

3D Anaglyph image from Notch's website.

"3D Anaglyph" was an option in video settings that applies a red-cyan stereoscopic effect, enabling the use of red-cyan 3D glasses to experience the game in more depth. This option was removed in snapshot 17w43a for 1.13 due to 3D glasses becoming less popular.

Void fog and particles

From Java Edition Beta 1.8 Pre-release up to its removal in Java Edition 14w34c, a fog effect and particles would appear in the lower 16 blocks of the world.

Dispensing command blocks

From snapshot 14w07a for 1.8, dispensers had the ability to place command blocks, when activated. This feature was removed as of 1.8.6 to solve a security issue.

Mobs running from creepers

In 1.8, mobs ran away from creepers that were about to explode. In 1.8.1-pre1, this feature was removed because every mob that had the ability to run from a creeper was looking for an exploding creeper every tick, degrading performance.

Water evaporating on magma blocks

In snapshot 16w20a for 1.10, water evaporated on top of magma blocks when randomly ticked. From snapshot 18w07a for 1.13, whirlpool bubble columns are produced on top of magma blocks instead.

Splashes

Note: When a line of splash text is removed, the line it occupied in splashes.txt is deleted, meaning the line number of all subsequent splashes lowers by one.

Main splashes

Splash text	Explanation	Version added	Version removed	Pre-removal line number
Pre-beta!	The Alpha version of Minecraft.	Indev 0.31 20100131	Beta 1.2	1
Alpha version!		Indev 0.31 20100202	Beta 1.2	30
9.95 euro!	The pricing of the Alpha version of Minecraft, which was less than half that of the final price.	Indev 20100206-2034	Beta 1.2	48
Half price!		Indev 20100206-2034	Beta 1.2	49
Check it out!	Duplicate of "Check it out!" on line 21.	Indev 20100206-2034	Beta 1.8 Pre-release	47
Notch <3 ez!	Notch was married to Ez, at the time.	Indev 20100219	1.8.5	100
SOPA means LOSER in Swedish!	SOPA was a highly controversial anti-piracy bill that made its way through the United States House of Representatives before it was rejected. In Swedish, "sopa" is a noun meaning "trash" or "garbage" and also commonly used as a slang insult. Prior to 1.3, this splash read "SOPA means LOSER in Swedish", without an exclamation point. The specific bill SOPA had not been a current issue for several years, by the time of the splash's removal.	1.1	1.9 (15w42a)	304
Better than Prey!	Prey (2006) is a first-person shooter that was well received by critics. The splash was removed four months after the release of the identically named Prey (2017).	Indev 0.31 20100202	1.12.1 (17w31a)	5
Hobo humping slobo babe!	"Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe" was the critically-acclaimed first single of the band Whale.	Beta 1.8 (Pre-release)	1.14 (19w12a)	259
Made by Notch!	Notch is the creator of Minecraft. The splashes were removed following controversial statements Notch made on Twitter.	Indev 0.31 20100202	1.14 (19w13a)	9
The Work of Notch!		Alpha v1.0.4		136
110813!	Notch's and Ez's wedding day, August 13, 2011. Removed following controversial statements Notch made on Twitter.	Beta 1.8 (Pre-release)		233
Woo, minecraftforum!	Referring to Minecraft Forum. Removed shortly after it was announced that the forum would shut down. However, despite the forums instead being sold to a third-party host, this splash remains removed from the latest version.	Alpha v1.0.13	1.14.2 (1.14.2-pre4 reupload)	171
Undocumented!		Indev 0.31 20100202	1.16 (1.16-rc1)	29
Down with O.P.P.!	Line from the song "O.P.P." by American hip hop trio "Naughty by Nature".	Indev 20100206-2034		39
Lewd with two dudes with food!	A line from "If You're Into It" by Flight of the Conchords. Prior to Alpha v1.0.14, this splash read "Rude with two dudes with food!".	Alpha v1.0.4		126
Switches and ores!	Redstone is used to create switches, and many types of ore can be found.	Alpha v1.0.14		191
Huge tracts of land!	A quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, describing the breasts of a bride-to-be. Also, refers to the large areas of terrain present in Minecraft.	Beta 1.0		207
Totally forgot about Dre!	Reference to the song "Forgot about Dre" by Dr. Dre.	Beta 1.8 (Pre-release)		252
Popping tags!	A reference to Macklemore's "Thrift Shop".	1.8 (14w10a)		325
Getting ready to show!	Lines from the song "Skeletons" by Stevie Wonder.	1.8 (14w25a)		335
Getting ready to know!				336
Getting ready to drop!				337
Getting ready to shock!				338
Getting ready to freak!				339
Getting ready to speak!				340
Woo, /v/!	The video game board on 4chan, where Minecraft is frequently discussed (and was occasionally promoted by Notch).	Alpha v1.0.13	1.17 (pre1)	166
Привет Россия!	Russian for "Hello Russia!".	1.1 (11w50a)	1.19 (22w17a)	282

Special splashes

Splash text	When displayed	Explanation	Version added	Version removed
Happy birthday!I love you!Alex x	For player "athna" on July 26, 2010		Alpha 1.0.6_01	Alpha 1.0.17
Happy birthday, ez!	November 9	Shown on ez's birthday.	Alpha 1.0.6_01	1.8.5
Happy birthday, Notch!	June 1	Shown on Notch's birthday.	Alpha 1.0.6_01	1.8.5
missingno		Shown when the splashes.txt file has been modified or deleted without also deleting the META-INF folder. References a glitch Pokémon found in Pokémon Red and Blue.	Alpha v1.0.12	1.14 (19w13a)
Finally beta!		Excluding "Merry X-Mas!" and "Happy new year!", this was the only splash from Beta 1.0 to Beta 1.2.	Beta 1.0	Beta 1.2_01

"Super Secret Settings" button

The "Super Secret Settings", added in snapshot 13w38a for 1.7.2, were removed in snapshot 15w31a for 1.9 due to an internal rewrite. It was a button under the options menu that, when pressed, would blare a random game sound with a lower pitch, and activate a shader.

Native Twitch.tv integration

Native Twitch.tv integration was added in snapshot 13w47a for 1.7.4, and was removed in snapshot 15w31a for 1.9. It integrated Twitch chat into the game.

• 
• 
• 
• 

entity.hanging.place and entity.hanging.pop

entity.hanging.place and entity.hanging.pop were two sound effects added in snapshot 15w49a and removed in the next snapshot, 15w49b. The sound effects were blank audio files and were likely intended as sound effects for the lead.

Old conduit particle

The conduit was added in snapshot 18w15a with particles, but those particles were changed in the next snapshot, 18w16a.

/locate New_Village

There was a locate command called /locate New_Village. This was implemented in snapshot 18w48a for Village & Pillage before the village structures from Update Aquatic and prior were removed. Once these "old" villages were officially taken from the game's structure spawn list in snapshot 19w02a, /locate New_Village was replaced by /locate Village as the New_Village ID was no longer needed.

First-person view pivot

Removed in 1.14 for performance reasons. Before changed, the player could not look directly upwards or downwards.

Placeholder block drops

Survival Test introduced block drops, which were mapped as follows:

Block	Historical drops	Current drops
Gold Ore	Block of Gold	Raw Gold
Iron Ore	Block of Iron	Raw Iron
Coal Ore	Stone Slab	Coal
Wood	Planks	(itself)

Block drops were reworked in Indev.

Minimized textures

In Survival Test, item drops were restricted to the cube shape used for blocks. The projected texture was the same on all faces and the texture scale was closer to those of blocks, making it look cropped.

Tags

The water_hacked and waterlogged tags were added in snapshots 18w07a and 18w07b for 1.13 respectively and removed in 18w10c. Before the removal, these tags functioned as follows:

Tag	Values	Usage
minecraft:water_hacked	#minecraft:stairs, #minecraft:waterlogged, #minecraft:slabs, minecraft:chest	Blocks in this tag render in water as if any non-filled space in the block model was water.
minecraft:waterlogged	#minecraft:coral_plants, minecraft:bubble_column, minecraft:kelp, minecraft:kelp_top, minecraft:sea_grass, minecraft:tall_sea_grass	Used in the water_hacked.json block tag file. Prevents non-water mobs from spawning in this block. Allows swimming in this block.

Java launcher easter eggs

Prior to the release of Launcher 2.1.497x, the launcher contained multiple easter eggs. If the player hovered their cursor over the "Play" button for a few seconds, a random mob would appear in the bottom right corner of the launcher. In the top left corner of the launcher, the player could see a translucent creeper face. There was about a ¹⁄₁₁ chance of the creeper face being replaced with a shrugging kaomoji, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. When the player clicked on either of these, they turned solid white. Clicking them again would return them to their translucent state. In addition, if the player pressed Ctrl+B, the experience orb pickup sound would play ().

Old walking animation for mobs

In Survival Test, mobs (pigs, sheep, skeletons, zombies, spiders and creepers) had different walking animations.

Creeper melee attack

In Survival Test, creepers did melee damage (4HP) to the player. In Indev 0.31, this feature was removed.

Removed with the 1.3 server split

When 1.3 split client and server logic, several features lost significant functionality. While some of these have been effectively restored or at least substituted, many of them remain moved to this day.

Underground mushrooms

Mushrooms generated in caves from Java Edition Classic 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST until Java Edition 21w39a, when underground mushroom patches were (probably accidentally) removed from Java Edition, and have yet to be re-added.

Villagers accepting flowers from iron golems

Baby villagers used to accept poppies (originally roses) offered to them by iron golems since their addition in Java Edition 12w08a. This feature was removed at some point during the development of Java Edition 1.14. Iron golems still offer poppies to baby villagers, but they don't take the flower from the golem's hand.

Erosion basins

Erosions, also known as basins, are terrain features that strip away the surface layer of blocks in a small area, exposing the stone underneath. They were accidentally removed in 1.18.

Expanding ghasts

Ghasts used to expand slightly before shooting fireballs. This was accidentally removed in 1.3.