One of the world’s best selling video game, Minecraft, is getting a visual upgrade with Ray Tracing.
Mojang and NVIDIA have announced a new partnership that will see the popular open world sandbox game receive a stunning new level of realism through the introduction of real-time DXR ray tracing for the Windows 10 edition of Minecraft.
According to NVIDIA’s official release:
“Minecraft with RTX will refit the entire game with path tracing, a form of ray tracing featuring incredible levels of detail, affecting almost every pixel of every scene. You’ll see lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows, plus so much more, exemplifying the power of ray tracing and demonstrating why game developers like Mojang and Microsoft are working together with NVIDIA to enhance upcoming blockbusters with ray tracing.”
The world of Minecraft is ever changing, with blocks being added or removed, NPCs and enemies wandering freely around the land, and other players zooming about in minecarts.
To account for the constantly-changing conditions in game, every ray-traced effect works in real-time, bringing lifelike visual effects to the stylized world of Minecraft in eye-catching fashion.
“Ray tracing sits at the center of what we think is next for Minecraft,” said Saxs Persson, Franchise Creative Director of Minecraft at Microsoft. “RTX gives the Minecraft world a brand-new feel to it. In normal Minecraft, a block of gold just appears yellow, but with ray tracing turned on, you really get to see the specular highlight, you get to see the reflection, you can even see a mob reflected in it.”
Using ray tracing, the in game visuals are dramatically improved.
“Lighting is upgraded to real-time global illumination, enabling light to realistically illuminate blocks and buildings as the world is modified. Emissive blocks like Glowstone and Lava can illuminate environments, along with other dynamic game elements. Water, glass and other reflective surfaces show accurate real-time reflections, mirroring their surroundings. Shading and shadowing gain lifelike accuracy. Clouds, fog and other atmospheric effects naturally change the look and feel of the world. Blocks gain extra depth and detail from normal maps, enabling shadows, lighting, specular reflectivity and ambient occlusion to further increase their fidelity and appearance. And on it goes, because the entire game is enhanced with ray tracing.”
According to the NVIDIA release, ray tracing will be moddable, in line with Minecraft’s modding capabilities. This will enabling players to generate endless ray traced content for themselves and others. With the ray traced effects and capabilities of RTX Minecraft, new in-game designs that were previously thought to be impossible will become a reality.
Minecraft is a game of creativity and exploration. Now with RTX, PC gamers will get to experience their Minecraft worlds like never before.
