Minecraft accidentally adds Xbox Series X feature early
Ray tracing was a mistake
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After rolling out aMinecraftPreview build that allowed Xbox Series X|S players to enable ray tracing in the game,Microsofthas announced the feature was included as a mistake and removed its support.
Players could enable the next-gen feature by downloading the Minecraft Preview build – a test version of the game that includes upcoming features, and is available for Xbox Insider members. As reported byThe Verge, by toggling aray tracingoption found in the game’s video settings, you could activate the advanced lighting mode.
However, while some fans were excited to finally see ray tracing make its way to the classic block-building game, Microsoft has since announced that the inclusion of the feature was a mistake.
“The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for ray tracing support on Xbox consoles,” the official MinecraftTwitter page said in a tweet.
“This early prototype code has been removed from Preview and doesn’t signal near future plans to bring ray tracing support to consoles.”
That means you won’t be able to activate ray tracing in Minecraft through this preview build any longer, and Microsoft doesn’t want you thinking that the accidental inclusion of the feature in any way suggests ray tracing will be added to theXbox Series XandXbox Series Sversions of the game anytime soon – which be disappointing news for some Minecraft fans.
Minecraft with raytracing on Xbox? The latest Minecraft Preview is optimized for Xbox Series S / X and has early raytracing support 👀 pic.twitter.com/cqH0cuGbtSMarch 28, 2022
More to come
Microsoftannouncedray tracing support for Minecraft way back in 2019, and showed off just how effective the advanced rendering technique can be with acouple of screenshotsin 2020.
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But, it sounds like we’ll be waiting a while longer for full ray tracing support to make its way to Minecraft’s Xbox version. It’ll most likely release when Minecraft receives a full next-gen update. Currently, Xbox Series X|S andPS5players still using the version of the game available onPS4andXbox One.
If you’re playingMinecraft on PC, however, don’t worry. Minecraft’s desktop version has included ray tracing support since 2020, and we reckoned it was pretty mesmerizing when we tested out the officialNvidia-developed RTX patch for the game.
Callum is TechRadar Gaming’s News Writer. You’ll find him whipping up stories about all the latest happenings in the gaming world, as well as penning the odd feature and review. Before coming to TechRadar, he wrote freelance for various sites, including Clash, The Telegraph, and Gamesindustry.biz, and worked as a Staff Writer at Wargamer. Strategy games and RPGs are his bread and butter, but he’ll eat anything that spins a captivating narrative. He also loves tabletop games, and will happily chew your ear off about TTRPGs and board games.
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