Installing 64-bit java on Mac OS X Lion?

When playing Minecraft 1.0, a java-based game, when I switch the rendering options to "Far", the game shows a message saying that memory usage for the game might be too high in Far rendering mode, and that I'm running 32-bit java and should install 64-bit java for the Far mode to work properly.

I can't recall ever actually installing java on this Mac at all.

Is there a way for me to install 64-bit java on my Mac?

This is an June/July 2011 iMac with Mac OS X Lion, all updates installed.

Look for Java Preferences in Utilities. There you'll find order of Java binaries browser will use.

Here's a well-written and detailed discussion about Minecraft & Java including Java order, the Minecraft start stub, etc:

Make sure to use the latest Java: Java for OS X Lion Update 1 (Java 1.6.0_29, updated 09. Nov.) Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 6 (Java 1.6.0_29, updated 09. Nov.) Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 10 (Java 1.6.0_26 on 64bit Intel, Java 1.5.0_30 last release for PPC) Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 9 (only supports Java 1.5.0_19)

At this point it's a good idea to open Java Preferences and check which versions of Java are installed and what the preferred run order is. Sort it so that Java 6 64bit is on top, then Java 6 32bit, Java 5 64bit, Java 5 32bit.

Within Info.plist (see paragraph 2), find the 'JVMVersion' key and change it to '1.6+'. The next step is to replace 'JavaApplicationStub' in

Minecraft.app/Contents/MacOS/

with the one found in

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A/Resources/MacOS/

Use 'Show package contents' and 'Go to folder' (⇧⌘G) to find those places.

Most people experience improved performance when switching to 64bit. Add a key to 'JVMArchs' with the value 'x86_64' on top of the existing ones to run Java in 64bit if it is available. This step is optional but recommended.