After much teasing, Minecraft with RTX is finally coming to PCs. In an official blog post on Tuesday, Nvidia announced that a beta build of the cult sandbox video game with support for real-time Ray Tracing will go live on Thursday, April 16, for the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft on Windows 10. It will be available to all gamers using RTX-enabled graphics cards.
Minecraft with RTX is expected to bring fully path-traced rendering, physically-based materials and DLSS 2.0 – Nvidia’s AI-based upscaling algorithm that uses dedicated Tensor cores on RTX cards to boost frame rates without reducing image quality. According to Nvidia, the new features will “(deliver) bleeding-edge visual fidelity and realism that can be experienced on all GeForce RTX GPUs”. Do note that the RTX features will be optional and users will be able to switch them off via a toggle if they want.
The changes are expected to completely revamp the look and feel of the age-old game with realistic hard and soft shadows, thanks to Global Illumination that Nvidia says will cast pixel-perfect lighting, including hi-fidelity reflections from all reflective surfaces and blocks. According to the company, the reflection, refraction and scattering of light on water, ice, stained glass and other transparencies will also look natural, “resulting in high quality volumetric fog, and pixel-perfect god rays”.
Nvidia is also partnering with Minecraft creators from around the world to add 6 new Creative, Adventure and Survival worlds that will be available for free to all current owners of the game. The new worlds 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 and Of Temples and Totems RTX by Razzleberries.
