Minecraft will get free support for ray tracing graphics in a free update

MinecraftBulk images will soon be much more beautiful, at least for PC players with the right graphics card in their computer. Nvidia works with Minecraft Mojang developer will implement real-time ray tracing in a free update of the Windows 10 version of the game, companies announced Monday, before Gamescom 2019. The update is scheduled for next year , said a Microsoft representative in Polygon.

"The ray tracing is central to what we think is the next for MinecraftSaid Saxs Persson, creative director franchise of Minecraft at Microsoft, in a press release. "GeForce RTX gives the Minecraft world a whole new sensation to it. In normal Minecraft, a block of gold just appears in yellow, but with activated ray tracing, you can really see the specular highlight, you see the reflection, you can even see a crowd reflected in it. "

While ray tracing is slowly adding to more and more games, the feature has so far been limited to titles that are graphic masterpieces. Of course, these games tend to unfold in realistic worlds (Battlefield 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Metro Exodus), even if they are not designed to be photorealistic per se (future titles with ray tracing support include Eternal Doom).

The introduction of ray tracing in Minecraft This may seem odd, but as you can see in the comparison plans below, the feature turns visually even for this resolutely lo-fi game. It should also be noted that despite its old-school graphics, Minecraft has surprisingly high system requirements. Lifetime sales on PCs approach 32 million copies, and it's the # 3 on the list of the most popular games played on Nvidia GeForce cards, according to the company Fortnite.

MinecraftThe implementation of ray tracing will be similar to that of Quake 2 RTX: a complete visual overhaul in which almost everything on the screen is rendered via trajectory tracing, an advanced form of ray tracing. (Jason Paul, general manager of GeForce software and technology at Nvidia, told Polygon that the few exceptions – elements that will be rendered using traditional raster techniques – include special effects such as particle effects. the same goes for Quake 2 RTX, according to an analysis by Digital Foundry.)

"Path tracking simulates how light is transported through a scene," Nvidia said in a press release. "It presents a unified model for lighting calculations for many types of effects that were traditionally implemented separately using pixelated or hybrid renderers."

Here is what tracing will deliver for Minecraft, according to Nvidia and Mojang:

● Direct lighting of the sun, sky and various light sources, including emitting surfaces such as sparkling stone and lava

● Realistic hard and soft shadows depending on the size, shape and distance of the light source

● Emitting light per pixel

● Indirect Diffuse Illumination (Diffuse Global Illumination)

● Indirect specular lighting (reflections)

● Transparent materials with reflection, refraction and diffusion (stained glass, water, ice)

● Atmospheric diffusion and density (volumetric fog, skylights, realistic sky)

The announcement of Nvidia and Mojang comes just a week after the Minecraft The manufacturer said that it had canceled the development of the Super Duper Graphics Pack, an official visual overhaul revealed by Microsoft at the E3 2017. The optional add-on, originally planned for an outing to the autumn of 2017, reportedly added "dynamic shadows, lighting that through the fog, movement in the leaves and grass, new textures for crowds and villagers, directional lighting , [and] ". More than two years after the announcement of the update, however, Mojang said it "was too technically demanding to implement as planned" and added, "We are not satisfied with the performance of the pack on all devices.

The cancellation of the DLC and the announcement of the support of ray tracing seem to be a coincidence, even if the timing does not look great. Think of it this way: the Super Duper graphics pack was originally under development for Minecraft on Windows 10 and the Xbox One, Mojang claiming that its performance would be optimal on "high-end PCs and [Xbox One X]. "But ray tracing is limited to a smaller audience – computer owners with a recent GPU based on Nvidia Pascal or Turing. A spokesman for Microsoft confirmed to Polygon that ray tracing in Minecraft Nvidia graphics cards will not be exclusive, but they are the only mainstream GPUs currently compatible with this technology.

And since MinecraftThe update of the ray tracing is based on the tracing of the paths. It will probably require one of Nvidia's relatively expensive RTX cards, which support hardware-based ray tracing. (The cheapest, the RTX 2060 at $ 349, can not work Quake 2 RTX (60 frames per second in 1080p with all ray tracing effects enabled.) Meanwhile, Nvidia's main competitor, AMD, has not yet announced a graphics card with hardware ray tracing capabilities or published driver to support the Microsoft DirectX Raytracing API on Radeon GPUs.

Asked about the Super Duper graphics pack canceled and MinecraftThe next RTX update, a Microsoft representative, told Polygon that the development of these two elements was "unrelated" – in other words, the last element should not be considered as a replacement. from the first.

"Minecraft with RTX is a feature enhancement not related to the Render Dragon graphics engine that will bring new features to DirectX-aware devices [Raytracing]The spokesman said in a statement, and there is still hope for people who do not have a robust gaming platform with a new Nvidia RTX GPU, including those who play Minecraft on platforms outside the PC.

"In the long run, we are working on adding additional graphics capabilities to devices other than ray tracing," the statement said. "The community's response to Super Duper has shown that we are on the right track with Super Duper's vision, so we are exploring new options and working to expand the capabilities of our new graphics engine, Render Dragon."