The latest Minecraft preview build appears to be optimised for Xbox Series X and Series S consoles and has early raytracing support.
It looks like Mojang are finally preparing the next-gen upgrade for Minecraft on consoles. The new build of the game is now available in Beta on Xbox, bringing an option to toggle ray-tracing on or off. The game also appears with the "Optimised for Xbox Series X|S" badge, which suggests a full slate of improvements could soon hit the game.
If you have the preview build installed on your Xbox Series X|S console, you should see an option to enable ray-tracing in the game's settings as well as a slider for ray-tracing render distance.
Screengrab/Tom Warren
So, when exactly can we expect this update to arrive to Minecraft's main build? Well, it's hard to say for certain but it should not take long now that the update has been added to Minecraft Preview.
Developers usually add these updates to preview builds when they're nearing the official release so we should not be waiting for too long from this point.
Nvidia
As for the PlayStation 5 version, we assume Mojang will be releasing the update to Sony's console too but Xbox Series consoles are probably a priority, given that Mojang is owned by Microsoft.
Minecraft RTX launched for PC back in 2020, delivering stunning visuals and completely transforming the game's look. Though, to this day, it's one of the most demanding ray-tracing titles ever. It will be interesting to see how Mojang optimise it for consoles.
Minecraft's ray tracing upgrade gives it a shiny new look
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