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By Hirun Cryer published 9 December 2020

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Minecraft's ray tracing update is live right now on Windows 10 for PC.

The ray tracing update for Minecraft's PC version on Windows was announced yesterday in a blog post on the Minecraft website. Over on the blog post from developer Mojang, it's revealed that Minecraft uses ray tracing to cast impressive shadows and lighting effects on landscapes and creations throughout the game. Just below, you can check out the ray tracing capabilities of Minecraft in action.

The Minecraft blog post reminds everyone that to take advantage of the new ray-tracing features on PC, they'll need a GPU that's capable of ray tracing, for example the GeForce RTX 2060 GPU. If you have a powerful GPU like the one mentioned, you'll then need to manually install the ray tracing update for Minecraft on PC, after which everything within the game itself will automatically be rendered using ray tracing.

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Introduced alongside the new ray-tracing update for Minecraft are two brand new worlds for players to mess around in. The first world is called Colosseum RTX and is available now on PC, letting players experience ray tracing within a dazzling colosseum. The second world, calling Dungeon Dash RTX, is coming at a later date to Minecraft, but shows off the game's ray tracing capabilities through combat challenges in a Medieval country.

For more concrete details on the ray-tracing features in Minecraft, including a full demonstration of the features in action, head over to the official Minecraft website.

If you're looking to get the most out of Minecraft once you've installed the new ray tracing pack, you can check out our guide to the best Minecraft mods for more.

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Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

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