A project to revamp Minecraft’s graphics with slick new effects has been cancelled by Mojang, the developer of the game. They call the feature “too technically challenging to implement.
A Minecraft Super Duper Graphics Pack was announced by Microsoft and Mojang at E3 2017. A planned optional add-on, to be released in fall 2017, would have added “dynamic shadows, lighting that stream through the fog, leaf and grass movement, new textures for mobs and residents, directional lighting, and edge highlighting.”
It is Mojang’s promise to make the DLC completely optional that it offers “a whole new way to see the game.”. According to the developer, “Minecraft’s original lovely look isn’t going anywhere”.
Introduction of Minecraft ray Tracing:
An RTX card uses Ray Tracing technology to create hyper-realistic settings in games, but it comes at a very high cost in processing power. NVIDIA’s RTX 2000 series of graphics cards brought the technology into real-time rendering. In-game performance does suffer due to real-time Ray Tracing, though the visual experience is much better.
The rendering and framerate of games are usually improved by a process called rasterization, which approximates how light behaves. It is a method of rendering 3D models that simulates complex light interactions by tracing rays in order to more closely reproduce real-world lighting effects. Game developers use rasterization to improve performance, while professional content (like Pixar) uses Ray Tracing to achieve photo-realistic results. A hybrid rendering algorithm called RTX uses rasterization to create basic structures and surfaces, which is then ray traced for light effects such as reflections and shadows. Current RTX 2000 series GPUs use this method as the most efficient one.
How Does This Work for Minecraft? – Windows 10 Beta:
Microsoft and NVIDIA released the RTX Beta of Minecraft Windows 10 Edition on April 16th of this year. They have also reworked the way water and light combine to create caustics as light hits it, as well as added real-time reflections and color blending. The real-time Ray Tracing in this beta can accurately use color theory for the real-time blending of colors. Additionally, there were ‘Mirror Blocks’ on display, which used color, light, and shadow RTX to achieve infinite reflectivity. All of these improvements are primarily focused on Global Illumination, reflections, and refractions. In addition to these features, Minecraft has added labelling to its blocks to control how light reflects against them. For example, the carpet reflects light less than gold.
These features may sound like a lot of buzzwords, but they all contribute to a more immersive experience for the player. In addition to being more beautiful, the world will also be able to accurately mimic real-world lighting properties, and that’s just incredible.
What The Niche Truth Is:
All of this stuff is impressive, but what does it all mean to you? Probably not much. There isn’t much demand for PC versions of Minecraft. This could be the PS4, Xbox One, Switch, Mobile, or even last-generation devices. It is not possible to get RTX on Minecraft without an RTX capable graphics card, which is currently only available on PC. Still, there is a very small percentage of PC players who have even RTX-capable machines, whether they are Java or Windows 10 Edition. RTX cards are currently extremely expensive and also suffer from performance drops when RTX is on. One might argue that Microsoft has no point in taking this step since so few players will be affected.
Therefore, the technology will eventually become cheaper to manufacture and more popular, making it easier to purchase. The unfortunate circumstances the world is experiencing right now may even force NVIDIA to lower its prices in the hopes of increasing sales.