Microsoft has began testing ray tracing assist for Minecraft on Xbox Series X / S consoles. A brand new Minecraft Preview construct is out there to Xbox Insiders, and it contains restricted ray tracing assist. The newest check construct can also be marked as optimized for Xbox Series X / S, suggesting {that a} next-gen patch is coming quickly.

I’ve been testing out the most recent Minecraft Preview, and have been capable of efficiently allow some ray tracing assist. It’s not a easy change, although. Minecraft’s ray tracing is enabled by way of extra useful resource packs, and there’s no simple means of downloading and putting in these within the Xbox model of the sport proper now. There’s a workaround, although. You can host a Minecraft session on a Windows PC with the packs enabled, and an Xbox participant can be part of that session and ray tracing will probably be enabled.

You’re then capable of toggle ray tracing assist on or off from the settings menu. While there may be additionally a setting for upscaling assist, this seems to be restricted to Nvidia’s DLSS on the PC facet proper now. Hopefully that can ultimately prolong to AMD’s FSR 2.0 assist on Xbox, or different upscaling strategies.

Minecraft gamers on Xbox have been ready a very long time to listen to about ray tracing on Xbox Series X / S. Microsoft originally teased Minecraft ray tracing on Xbox Series X two years in the past, and the addition of the assist within the newest preview construct suggests it may very well be on its means quickly.

Minecraft’s blocky aesthetic was initially upgraded as a part of the ray tracing launch for the Windows 10 model of the sport in December 2020. The ray tracing is most noticeable in water reflections or shadows inside Minecraft, or by way of the extra element in texture packs.