Microsoft and NVIDIA have announced that Minecraft is getting its long-awaited RTX update as well as NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 on April 17th. The RTX update will launch in beta with gamers being able to get access through the Xbox Insider Hub when it launches later this week. The update will then launch later in the year for all Minecraft owners on Windows 10.
When the beta goes live, Minecraft players will be able to download six created worlds which will all take advantage of both Ray Tracing as well as DLSS 2.0. These worlds are:
- Aquatic Adventure RTX by Dr_Bond
- Color, Light and Shadow RTX by PearlescentMoon
- Crystal Palace RTX by GeminiTay
- Imagination Island RTX by BlockWorks
- Neon District RTX by Elysium Fire
- Of Temples and Totems RTX by Razzleberries
Ray Tracing will provide more realistic lighting and better reflections in the water as well as on metallic surfaces. NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 will help you run the game with faster frame rates due to AI processing. You can expect 1.7x faster frame rates, which is incredibly useful (especially with RTX activated).
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM RAY TRACING
- Direct lighting from the sun, sky and various light sources
- Realistic hard and soft shadows
- Emissive lighting from surfaces such as glowstone and lava
- Global illumination
- Accurate reflections in water and metallic surfaces
- Transparent materials such as stained glass, water and ice with reflection and refraction
- Volumetric fog and light shafts
The update will also bring a new physically based material system which help the material used in game look more realistic. This combines things such as light emission, roughness and depth of the materiel combined with ray tracing lighting effects such as reflections, translucency, transparency and global illumination.
All of these things make Minecraft look and feel like a completely different game. You’ll need a GeForce RTX 2060 or higher to take advantage of Minecraft RTX. You can read more about the update on NVIIDA’s website right HERE.
