Minecraft is one of, if not the most played game in the world. It is played by people of all ages and walks of life, and now thanks to Nvidia and their RTX line of video cards, it will be getting ray tracing and the results are stunning. Bringing all the features of the RTX range of cards, the new visuals take the classic Minecraft look and elevate it to new heights.
Ray-tracing has been a buzzword for a while now in graphics, allowing video cards to render much more realistic lighting and shadow, making games look better. A few games have offered these features, and while the list is growing all the time, it is still only a select few that take advantage of these features to their fullest. Nvidia has been pushing the technology through the sale of over 15 Million RTX graphics cards, and have been working to updates games so that they can showcase what RTX can do. They did it with Quake 2, making the classic FPS look mesmerizing, and now with the help of Microsoft, Minecraft is getting the same treatment.
The new update that features RTX brings with it all the features you would hope to see from the technology, from lighting, reflectings, shadows and materials of the world. This update, should your video card support it, makes Minecraft look like a new, much more lifelike game. It will also offer DLSS 2.0 offering a 1.7X performance boost that will feature crisp sharp images and will look better overall.
Nvidia will also be offering six free RTX maps at the launch of the beta. From temples, islands and neon Tron like worlds, these maps look to showcase the power of what RTX can do for the game, and what creators can achive should they put an effort in and take advantage of the tools at hand. But Nvidia did not stop there, they will also be offering a set of tools to allow creators to fully realize their RTX based visions. From HD resource packs, physics based textures, and guides to convert Java based worlds into Bedrock ones that can utalize the features, Nvidia is pushing to make RTX Minecraft exciting and one that is accessible to anyone that wants to jump in.
Arriving on the Windows 10 version of Minecraft April 16th, the RTX update is looking to be an exciting one for people who have been looking for new things to put their shinny RTX cards to the test. As more games start utilizing ray-tracing, it will be interesting to see how a game like Minecraft can take what was an enthusiast concept and push it into the mainstream. Time will tell, but this is a big step for Nvidia, and should creators jump onboard, could look to some amazing new worlds.
