Java Edition Infdev

Infdev (or  Inf inite Dev elopment) was the third phase in the development cycle of Minecraft and is only playable in single-player Survival mode.

Infdev succeeded Indev when Notch decided to rewrite the game's code to allow terrain to be "infinite" and procedurally generated rather than finite. This principle of how maps are generated is similar to how current Minecraft levels are. Ever since Infdev, maps generated terrain theoretically 8 times the size of the Earth. Infdev was also the first appearance of the Far Lands. The edge of the map limits the world to 60,000,000 blocks by 60,000,000 blocks, or 3.6 billion square km. Earth has a total surface area (including ocean) of 510 million square km.

Features

 * Massive, beautiful brick pyramids spawn very rarely in early versions of infdev. These pyramids reached from near the top of the world down to the ground. The base of the pyramid does not replace normally generated terrain except for water and (obviously) air.  The tops of these pyramids were commonly cut off.  Little information is known about this structure because it is so old, so rare, and so simple.
 * An extra dimension is hidden in Infdev's files called 'The Skylands.' This dimension is unreachable in ordinary infdev, but still exists.  In the skylands, there are very common floating islands.  It is always daytime.
 * Infdev also includes the Far Lands. The Far Lands are not exclusive to Infdev, however InfDev is the first appearance of them. The giant distortion wall at 12,550,820 and past that most people thought of as The Far Lands was removed in Beta 1.8, however the term has been used since to describe the far areas of the map and their strange shaky physics, as well as the end of the map at plus or minus 30 million.
 * For a full list of changes, see Infdev version history




 * Infinite map generation
 * More craftable items
 * 3D clouds
 * Much more complex cave systems
 * Dynamic fluid system.
 * Signs, ladders, and doors
 * Minecarts and their tracks
 * Dungeons

Alpha replacing Infdev
Because Infdev's main purpose was to catch an infinite terrain version up to par with Indev's content, that purpose was filled around June 2010. Infdev was replaced by the name of Alpha as a sign of progression towards release. Infdev no longer gets updated, and its link has been removed from the Minecraft website.

Infdev, along with Indev, were still available on Minecraft.net up until September 2010, and to play Infdev now, players must use the option for playing another version of the game in the new launcher.

Trivia

 * Infdev was given its name as a play on words from Indev (which stood for In Development); the "Inf" stands for Infinite.
 * Infdev is silent since the Infdev resources are removed from minecraft.net/resources. But this does not happen to Indev and 0.31.
 * Breaking a block when directly on top of it will not show the breaking animaton in Infdev.
 * In the early versions of Infdev, you are started with 999 Wood Planks and 999 Glass Blocks.(This has long since been removed.)