Minecraft has now been upgraded and enhanced with ray tracing for even better visuals and astounding world upgrades. Minecraft with RTX, as it is known, is available to those running Windows 10 on a PC that can support it. 

This version of Minecraft brings improved global illumination, enhanced water reflections and accurate shadows to your Minecraft world. 

As long as you have a ray tracing capable graphics card (Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or higher), you can experience these visuals for yourself and here's how.

 

How to download Minecraft with RTX

In order to try the Minecraft with RTX beta you first need to be sure you're running Windows 10 with the right graphics card. If you already own Minecraft, then you can try the Minecraft with RTX beta for free. 

Follow these steps to get started:

  1. Visit the Windows Store and download the Xbox Insider Hub app
  2. Once that's done, click to open the app and click to join the Xbox Insider program
  3. Once you've joined, click the open box icon on the left
  4. You should then see an open to join the Minecraft for Windows 10 beta, click that then click to join
  5. Select the option that says "Minecraft for Windows 10 RTX Beta"
  6. You then have the option to download Minecraft or have your current version updated

It's worth noting that if you're already in the standard Minecraft beta (the non-RTX version) then the steps to sign up are slightly different. You can find details on that here.

How to try the Minecraft with RTX beta for free image 1
Nvidia

How to make the most of RTX

When you have the Minecraft with RTX beta installed, you can get stuck right into enjoying your enhanced Minecraft experience. The best way to do this is to download some pre-built Minecraft worlds that have already been lovingly crafted to make use of the ray tracing enhancements. 

You can find these in the Minecraft marketplace. Simply search for content tagged with RTX. It's worth noting that ray tracing cannot be turned on for every Minecraft world. They need to be ray tracing enabled first, so this is the best way to try them. 

This is, of course, a beta, so there are some known issues that exist and some that are being actively addressed too. You can see the current issues here and submit feedback and bugs as well if you want to help improve the game.