Minecraft with RTX ray tracing officially releases for Windows 10, available to everyone
Play Minecraft with gorgeous textures and lighting effects.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
What you need to know
Minecraftis undoubtedly a classic in the video game world and continues to collect more and more players with every update. However, the game’s visuals haven’t dramatically changed since Minecraft’s release in2009, with a distinctive visual style that fits in well on any device and any hardware. Now, at least on Windows 10,Minecraft with RTX ray tracingisofficially releasingfor everyone to enjoy. Ray tracing brings considerable visual upgrades to Minecraft with superior lighting, shadows, reflections, textures, shaders, and so much more. At first glance, it truly looks like a totally different game. You can check out the release trailer below for a quick look.
Minecraft with RTX has been in beta testing since April of this year, and finally picked upthe Nether Updatea few months ago, bringing it up-to-date with the non-RTX version of Minecraft. Now it’s officially available to everyone that has the necessary hardware, so if your gaming rig is set up with an RTX graphics card from NVIDIA, you can experience Minecraft with RTX ray tracing too. Even better, it’s still compatible with Minecraft’s classic visuals, so you can toggle ray tracing on or off, or play with people who don’t have an RTX-compatible card.
Alongside the release of Minecraft with RTX, Mojang Studios is also releasing two new maps for free in the Minecraft Marketplace that show off what ray tracing brings to their open-world creative sandbox. Interested players can also create their own texture packs to start from scratch with ray tracing.
Unfortunately, there’s no word onMinecraft for the Xbox Series X|S, so ray tracing isn’t coming to Minecraft on theXbox Series XorXbox Series Sat this time. If you have a gaming PC or are working on building one and want to experience ray tracing for yourself, consider some of theBest Graphics Cards for Gamingto get an idea of what you should be looking for.
Available everywhere you play.
Minecraft is an inarguable and complete success. It has sold copies in the hundreds of millions, has a huge following of dedicated players, and lets you unlock your every creative desire. It’s also available on every platform imaginable, including Xbox One, Windows 10, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch. Play with anyone, and play anywhere.
Minecraft
Main
Get the Windows Central Newsletter
All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.
Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter@BoddyZachary.
