Nvidia Reveals Host of RTX Enabled Games, Minecraft Receives Drastic Update

At Gamescom earlier today, Nvidia unveiled a roster of games set to receive ray tracing updates, with Minecraft receiving a ground-up overhaul.

In a press release, Saxs Persson, franchise creative director of Minecraft at Microsoft, expounded upon ray tracing support for the title,

“Ray tracing sits at the center of what we think is next for Minecraft. GeForce RTX gives the Minecraft world a brand-new feel to it. In normal Minecraft, a block of gold just appears yellow, but with ray tracing turned on, you really get to see the specular highlight, you get to see the reflection, you can even see a mob reflected in it.”

The results are stunning, with ray tracing in Minecraft set to include:

• Direct lighting from the sun, sky and various light sources, including emissive surfaces such as glowstone and lava

• Realistic hard and soft shadows depending on the size, shape and distance of the light source

• Per-pixel emissive lighting

• Indirect diffuse illumination (diffuse global illumination)

• Indirect specular illumination (reflections)

• Transparent materials with reflection, refraction and scattering (stained glass, water, ice)

• Atmospheric scattering and density (volumetric fog, light shafts, realistic sky)

Additionally, Nvidia unveiled new games to support ray tracing, including:

• Dying Light 2 – The highly anticipated open world action RPG Dying Light 2, the next installment to the franchise with over 17 million players, will feature real-time ray tracing, taking immersion in the world of the infected set within a Modern Dark Age to the next level.

• Metro Exodus – The Two Colonels downloadable content (DLC) – Metro Exodus’ use of global illumination made it a showcase title for ray tracing. Now, NVIDIA, 4A Games and Deep Silver are adding ray-traced global illumination with emissive lighting via the upcoming The Two Colonels DLC. Attendees can play the upcoming The Two Colonels DLC for the first time.

• Minecraft – Minecraft is the world’s best-selling video game. Together, NVIDIA and game developer Mojang are adding a form of ray tracing known as path tracing for the Windows 10 version of the game. Upon release of the game update, Minecraftplayers will be able to build, create and explore their Minecraft worlds in stunning realism with real-time ray tracing. They can immerse themselves in realistic lighting and vibrant colors enabled by global illumination, realistic water that reflects and refracts naturally and emissive textures that now light up their world. Attendees can play Minecraft with real-time ray tracing at Gamescom and capture their gameplay to share.

• SYNCED: Off-Planet – Tencent’s flagship games development studio has partnered with NVIDIA to unveil its inaugural AAA game featuring ray-tracing technology. Previously unannounced, SYNCED: Off-Planet is a brand new franchise that will use ray-traced reflections and shadows in a new twist on PvPvE that has players fighting each other while surviving 1,000+ “Nano Zombies.” Attendees can play the game and capture their gameplay to share.

Upcoming and existing games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Watch Dogs Legion, Wolfenstein Youngblood, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, Control, and Cyberpunk 2077 are set to receive the tech as well. Control will be the first game to implement multiple types of ray tracing including translucent reflections, contact shadows, and global illumination.