On Xbox Series X and S consoles, Microsoft has begun testing ray tracing capability for Minecraft. Xbox Insiders may now download a new Minecraft Preview build that contains limited ray tracing capability. The latest test build is also designated as Xbox Series X / S optimized, implying that a next-gen patch is on the way.
We’ve been playing around with the newest Minecraft Preview and have managed to get some ray tracing support working. But it isn’t an easy switch. Additional resource packs are required to enable ray tracing in Minecraft, and there is currently no convenient way to obtain and install these in the Xbox version of the game. However, there is a workaround. On a Windows PC with the packs enabled, you can host a Minecraft session, and an Xbox player can join that session, and ray tracing will be enabled.
From the options menu, you can toggle ray tracing support on or off. While there is an option for upscaling support, it appears to be confined to Nvidia’s DLSS on PC for the time being. Hopefully, AMD’s FSR 2.0 support for Xbox will follow suit, as will other upscaling solutions.
Minecraft fans on Xbox have been hoping for ray tracing on the Xbox Series X / S for a long time. Minecraft ray tracing on Xbox Series X was first mentioned two years ago, and the addition of support in the newest preview release hints it could be coming soon.
