Minecraft with RTX Open Beta will officially be launched this April 16, 2020 Thursday 10 am PST (Pacific Standard Time). This will mark a new evolution of the game by introducing realistic shadows, lighting and vibrant colors to the best selling video game of all time.
“We teamed up with Mojang Studios to bring next-generation ray tracing and AI to Minecraft and the results are truly amazing,” said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of gaming at NVIDIA. “There is a ton of excitement from the community for Minecraft with RTX, and we can’t wait to
see what they create.”
Everyone is invited to download the game update. This update will usher in a graphical make-over of the game, bringing real time ray-tracing plus NVIDIA DLSS 2.0. As an additional incentive to gamers; NVIDIA has provided six new Minecraft worlds to download from the Minecraft Marketplace to try out.
Table of Contents
Ray Tracing Arrives in Minecraft
NVIDIA, Mojang, and Microsoft have come together to create a new experience for Minecraft players by adding a new feature to ray tracing in the game called “path tracing”. Path tracing essentially replicates how a sun or any illumination source simulates how it transports light throughout an environment. Unlike past implementations, this brings all of the lighting calculations into one package. Some of the existing features that are folded/included into path tracing are:
- Direct Lighting from the sun and other light sources
- Realistic Hard and Soft Shadows
- Emissive lighting from surfaces like glowstone or lava
- Global Illumination
- Realistic reflections in water, mirrors or other reflective surfaces
- Light reflection/refraction on translucent/transparent materials like glass, ice or water.
- Volumetric fog and light shafts (god rays)
Six Worlds to Play and Explore with Ray Tracing
To celebrate the open beta launch, NVIDIA has worked with some of the most talented Minecraft creators to make and release six new Minecraft Worlds for players like us to try out. These new worlds will showcase what ray tracing and Physically-Based Rendering (PBR) textures can do within the game. As featured in our previous article on Minecraft with RTX preview, some of the chosen creators are again showcasing their works as downloadable worlds in the Minecraft Store; and along with a few more samples. Worlds featuring ray tracing for Minecraft with RTX are:
- Aquatic Adventure RTX by Dr_Bond
- Colour, 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
Minecraft RTX will be available later this year as a free update to owners who already have the base game on Windows 10. To get the beta, players will need to sign up through the Minecraft RTX Open Beta for Windows 10 through the XBOX Insider Hub on April 16. All six beta worlds will be available for download starting April 16 in the Minecraft Marketplace. In order to experience ray tracing in game, players must have at least an GeForce RTX 2060 GPU or higher; and have the latest drivers from NVIDIA installed.
