Ray tracing approaches Minecraft, Thursday April 16 Minecraft RTX Beta is released

Millions of Minecraft players around the world will be able to enjoy the worlds created by themselves more vividly than ever, when Minecraft, with RTX, enable beta in Windows 10 this week and introduce realistic shadows, lighting and vibrant colors in the video game best seller of all time.

From Thursday, April 16, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, Minecraft players on Windows 10 will be able to download the beta of the long-awaited free game update, unleashing a state-of-the-art graphic makeover that includes real-time ray tracing, more realistic materials and NVIDIA DLSS 2.0.

NVIDIA will also offer players six new Minecraft worlds for free download from the Minecraft Marketplace, allowing them to experience what’s possible in Minecraft when real-time ray tracing is applied.

Ray tracing comes to Minecraft

NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Mojang Studios, the developer of Minecraft, have added a form of ray tracing known as path tracing for the Windows 10 version of the game. Path tracing simulates the way light is transported through a scene. It presents a unified model for calculating lighting for many different types of effects that have traditionally been implemented separately using raster or hybrid renderers. Among them are:

• Direct lighting from the sun, sky and various light sources
• Realistic soft and hard shadows
• Emissive lighting of surfaces like glow stone and lava
• Global illumination
• Accurate reflections in water and on metal surfaces
• Transparent materials such as stained glass, water and ice with reflection and refraction
• Volumetric fog and light axes

Ray tracing was introduced in Minecraft using the Microsoft DirectX 12 Ultimate API industry standard. NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX GPUs are the only GPUs with dedicated ray tracing cores that allow games to feature real-time ray tracing.

New physics-based materials system

Minecraft building blocks have been optimized with the properties of materials that emulate real life, a technique known as Physics-Based Rendering (PBR). This PBR system supports the properties of materials for light emission, roughness, depth and metallicity that combine with ray tracing to allow for lighting effects such as reflections, refraction, translucency, transparency and global illumination that opens up new possibilities and ways of creating in Minecraft.

Use AI to improve image quality in Minecraft

Minecraft with RTX also introduces NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 into the game. Powered by RTX cores, DLSS 2.0 is an improved deep learning neural network that increases frame rate while generating beautiful, sharp images for gaming. It provides the performance headroom – 1.7X faster frame rate – to enhance full path tracking in Minecraft with RTX.

Six gorgeous new Minecraft worlds to play, build, and explore

To celebrate Minecraft’s open beta with RTX, NVIDIA has worked with some of Minecraft’s most talented creators to make available to players six new Minecraft worlds that showcase the incredible possibilities that ray tracing and PBR textures bring to the game. Selected for their fantastic track record of making captivating contributions to the Minecraft community, these creators produced exciting results.

Minecraft with RTX will come as a free update later this year

The six new worlds can be downloaded for free from the Minecraft Games Marketplace, and include:

• 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

Minecraft with RTX will come as a free update later this year for users who own Minecraft on Windows 10. Players will have to register for the Minecraft Windows 10 RTX beta through the Xbox Insider Hub on April 16. The beta worlds can be downloaded for free from the Minecraft market on April 16. Gamers will also need a GeForce RTX 2060 or higher GPU and the latest NVIDIA Game Ready driver.