When a game is updated for the Xbox Series X, it often heralds a graphical improvement. Naturally, the expectation is high for some highly prized titles.
Many purists would say that gameplay is the most crucial element of a video game. While that’s true, it’s undeniably nice to enjoy a beautiful visual aesthetic. Take for example the craze around Minecraft when the RTX version was released by Nvidia, intended exclusively for GeForce RTX owners. In this regard, rumors have been talking for a while about a next-gen version of Minecraft for Xbox Series X / S. A new leak seems to go in this direction.
This cult game more beautiful than ever on Xbox Series?
There have been rumors of a Ray Tracing version of Minecraft for Xbox Series X/S for a while now, with no official confirmation from Microsoft or Mojang. In fact, over a year ago, a reporter from The Verge had already tweeted about it:
If we go back further, Microsoft had mentioned ray tracing for Minecraft on its Xbox Series console long before the release of the latter. This is to say if the giant is used to pre-announce. This time, everything seems to match. Indeed, the game has been listed on the website of the USK, the German organization for the classification of video games. This mention suggests that the long-awaited update could soon see the light of day and even be presented at Gamescom, the famous German trade show, whose opening night is scheduled for tomorrow at 8 p.m. This update is expected to deliver graphical and performance improvements to the game, including ray tracing support.
How does ray tracing really work?
To fully grasp its impact, let’s take a look at the foundation of ray tracing and what it could bring to a game like Minecraft in its potential Xbox Series release. Ray tracing is an advanced graphics rendering technique that simulates the interaction between light and objects to create realistic images. Although commonly used in film and visual effects for years to obtain photorealistic renderings, its integration into video games is more recent, due to its requirements in terms of computing power.
Ray tracing offers many advantages in the video game field. Surfaces can, for example, dynamically reflect other elements in the scene, allowing for ultra-realistic reflections. In addition, the shadows generated are sharper and more natural compared to traditional methods. Ray tracing can also simulate light bouncing off different surfaces, providing highly accurate ambient lighting. Even if on Minecraft it is necessarily a little more limited.
However, this is a resource-intensive technique. Although modern graphics cards, such as the Nvidia RTX series, have made it easier to implement real-time ray tracing, this technology is still expensive. That’s why many games take a hybrid approach, combining ray tracing and other rendering techniques, to balance graphics quality and performance. Since the Xbox Series was designed to support this technology from the start, its integration into Minecraft should normally not be a problem. At least that’s what we hope.