Minecraft with RTX for Windows 10 Now in Beta

Do you ever think that the sun is a bit smug? I do. Yes, it gives our planet the light and energy to survive, but also sunburns? Yikes, no thanks. If you want to catch some rays without the chance of the sun taking petty revenge on you for simply being outside, you’re really going to love what Minecraft with RTX beta for Windows 10 has in store.

Thanks to our partnership with NVIDIA, the Minecraft with RTX beta for Windows 10 brings a form of ray tracing known as path tracing to the game. What does that mean? Basically, it means that we’ve added new capabilities to our graphics engine, called Render Dragon™. It also means you can experience creator-built worlds that are illuminated with realistic lighting, vibrant colors, naturally reflective water, and emissive textures that light up.

Before we dazzle you with the rest of these details – you’ll need to have Minecraft for Windows 10 and you will need to join the beta. Your PC will also need a few things as well; minimum spec GPU of NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060, CPU of Intel Core i5 or equivalent, and 8GB+ RAM. Be sure to download the latest Game Ready Driver to have the best gaming experience – go to GeForce.com/drivers for more information. Still sounding good? Next you’ll need to join the beta, so go here to get more information. 

Are you still with me? Now let’s get to why you should join the beta – all the impossibly cool, never-before seen features! To show off Render Dragon’s chops, a set of creator-built worlds that utilize this technology are now available as a free download. Want to see how the sun falls on a Medieval village, or how the lights shine on a futuristic neon city? Just head to the Minecraft Marketplace to get it.

Not just that, you’ll also have the ability to create your own resource packs that let you change metallic properties, light emissions, and the roughness of materials. With features like direct lighting, emissive surfaces (such as glowstone and lava), realistic shadows, per-pixel emissive lighting, reflections, and transparent materials, you’ll have a whole new way to bring your beautiful worlds to life.

Before you go racing off to join the beta and get in on the fun (by following this very tempting link), please be aware that this beta, like every beta, is a work in progress. Things may go wrong, be a bit unstable, not available in all parts of the game (such as the Nether or the End), or may not match gameplay rules – but that’s part of the process. With that in mind, we’d love your help! Join the beta and let us know your suggestions on feedback.minecraft.net and of course please report all bugs on bugs.mojang.com. We have several known issues for this beta already and you can find the complete list at http://Aka.ms/rtxbeta.

Please remember that worlds opened on beta builds cannot be reopened on previous builds. We recommend that you always make a copy of your worlds before opening them in the beta. Beta players can only connect to other players on the same beta build and do not have access to Realms or Partnered Servers while on the beta. You can opt-in and out of the beta from the Xbox Insider Hub app. 

If you have any other questions about the beta, please check here. Also, be sure to update to the latest drivers for your GPU. If you are using an NVIDIA GPU, you can find the latest drivers here: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx. Thank you for testing out our development beta of Minecraft with RTX and don't forget to give us your feedback!

The Minecraft with RTX Windows 10 beta is only available on Windows 10. It is not available on Xbox One. Before you decide to participate in the Minecraft with RTX Beta, please remember that:

• You must have a ray tracing capable GPU to experience ray tracing features and content, for example, a GeForce RTX 2060 GPU or better.
• You may need to update to the latest version of Windows 10 before you can participate
• You must own Minecraft to participate in the Minecraft with RTX Windows 10 Beta.