Sky dimension



The Sky Dimension (otherwise was known as the Skylands, Floating Island Dimension, Dream World, or Heaven) was an earlier form of the End realm being worked on by Notch. When it was still designed as viewed right, Notch said that it "performs well, [but] looks ugly". The Sky Dimension was originally planned for the Beta 1.8 Adventure Update but was still a work in progress at that time.

In a live webcast on the Swedish gaming site feber.se Notch revealed that the Sky Dimension would "probably be a dream world" and that when "you go to bed there is a certain chance that you get dragged into the dream world instead. Then you will be able to do it on purpose later on.."

They later decided to rebrand this dimension as The End, changing it to a dark place and home to Endermen and Enderdragons.

History
The Sky Dimension was first announced by Notch tweeting a picture of the dimension. It was probably made to be like a "heaven," because the Nether was considered to be and act like a hell. The Sky Dimension was not completely confirmed until Notch released an update via Twitter stating: "And because PC Gamer made such a big deal of the Sky Dimension, I guess I'll have to finish it. Consider it confirmed."

The Mod-Enabled Version
Notch left data in for an early prototype of the Sky Dimension in Beta 1.6 and 1.7. Using various mods it is possible to access this currently unfinished version of the Sky Dimension.

In this version of the Sky Dimension, the build up of the world blocks-wise is very much like the Overworld, but it is always midday and it does not rain or snow (though cloud cover does appear as if it were raining). Although uncommon, it is possible to find Sugar cane, Redstone, Lapis Lazuli, and more rarely Diamond. Like the normal world, you can also find Dungeons, Iron, Coal, and Gold. The only mobs that currently spawn in the sky dimension are chickens and very rarely cows and pigs. Below the islands of the Sky Dimension is nothing but the Void and a layer of clouds.

Bugs


Originally, the Sky Dimension was hidden within the region 0 (Overworld) code. However, starting in Beta 1.9 Pre-release 3, it was given its own region: Region 2, Region 1 being the Nether. However, instead of Sky Dimension chunks spawning within its region, they would generate in the Overworld on Multiplayer servers. This is most likely due to an issue with map generation and saving causing Sky Dimension chunks to save over Overworld chunks rather than being made in their own, separate map files like the Nether does. If a world with Sky Dimension chunks is brought from Multiplayer to Singleplayer, the area of the chunks will always be Plains biome, even if there is snow had been generated naturally on the ground.

Videos

 * Notch's Sky Dimension in Minecraft Beta 1.6.4
 * Notch's Sky Dimension in Minecraft Beta 1.6.4 - Exploring with Hot Air Balloons!

Trivia

 * If the player selects a map while in the unfinished version of the Sky Dimension, their game will display the Saving Chunks screen and crash. This is because the current implementation of maps can’t handle exposed sections of the Void.
 * Maps work in the Sky Dimension in SMP.
 * The Sky Dimension is an inversion of The Nether, whereas the latter is basically a large cave with massive open space within, the former is floating islands surrounded by open space.
 * The Sky Dimension, similar to the Nether, has weather disabled. This is likely explained by the fact that it is above the clouds.
 * In Indev there was a World Type called "Floating." It spawned floating islands full of terrain based on the World Theme.
 * A reasonably large amount of players wish for the Sky Dimension to be continued as an additional realm, as its current incarnation as The End cosmetically retains almost no elements it originally had.