While Minecraft has continued on delivering its ongoing free expansion-like updates for more than a decade, the firm over at Mojang Studios has yet to deliver on one promise that was revealed nearly a handful of years ago. Rewinding back to 2017, then-Mojang unveiled the Minecraft Super Duper Graphics Pack. Inspired by mods, this next texture pack would deliver realistic lighting, shadows, and textures to console players.

Very ambitious at the time for Xbox One & PlayStation 4 hardware then let alone Nintendo Switch, this new add-on would essentially welcome raytracing support to Minecraft. However, it was very ambitious at the time knowing the components that make up current-gen machines at the time. Which resulted in the cancelation of the texture pack in 2019.

But this week, Xbox Insiders unearthed a new Minecraft Preview being added to the Xbox Insiders Program. In that, it welcomes a new version of the game which features first real-time raytracing support to the game for convention consoles. Noted, this is only available on Xbox Series X. 

From The Verge, senior editor Tom Warren explains that the new feature set for Minecraft Preview delivers an optimized version of the game for Xbox Series X|S. The update is also said to include limited raytracing through a selection of resource packs which then goes on to enable to feature. While Xbox Series S is notable to lack raytracing support, it is unspecified if it is missing the feature from the new update.

Looking ahead for Minecraft, Mojang is preparing to deliver another major update to the game later this year. In the form of a new update titled ‘The Wild’, players will find an great enhancement to the swamp biome which welcomed new trees, mud, and frogs to the game. You can read the full report by heading here.

Are you exited for more updates coming to Minecraft?

Source: The Verge