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Eight months later and Minecraft’s Ray Tracing feature for Windows 10 is finally out of beta. The inclusion of Ray Tracing support for NVIDIA’s RTX line of GPUs totally transforms the sandbox-style game’s aesthetics. Bland, dry worlds become bright, dynamic ones. It really makes Minecraft feel a lot more immersive. The in-game sunlight looks photorealistic and the reflections and shadows are spot-on.
Ray Tracing Won’t be Available for Everyone
Of course, you will need a PC with a Ray Tracing compatible NVIDIA GPU to be able to experience the upgrade. Also, only maps and worlds that use a particular rendering texture pack will show the improvements. The process is automatic, meaning that other people who don’t Ray Tracing compatible video cards will see standard versions of those levels.
Ray Tracing Adds an Overhead to Rendering
Ray Tracing makes puts more of a load on the GPU, so NVIDIA uses its DLSS AI rendering technology to keep Minecraft running at 60 FPS or higher at 1920×1080. Higher-end Graphics Processors like the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 have no problem running Minecraft with Ray Tracing at 4K at 60 FPS or higher.
Video Game Lighting Has Come a Long Way
I remember when Doom 3 came out in 2004. Everyone was going crazy about the realistic lighting that the game produced. At the time, the effect that the game achieved was nothing short of stunning.
In fact, that was just about all the game had going for it. I really it being pretty disappointing in other areas. We will see more of the same in 2020 with Ray Tracing.
Be prepared for a lot of titles to come out in which Ray Tracing (and how amazing it makes the visual experience) is the only good feature. lol
