All eyes might be on Nvidia‘s next-generation ‘Ampere’ graphics architecture that was announced during the digital GTC 2020 speech on May 14th. The architecture is set to be one of the most outstanding GPUs for scientific computing, cloud graphics, and data analytics.
Five More Ray-Traced Worlds
However, another good news is the release of five more ray-traced worlds created for Minecraft by a few community developers. A Minecraft beta allowed real-time ray tracing and Nvidia’s performance-enhancing DLSS 2.0 technology in late April, and even in the beta version, the popular game became the flagship title for the cutting-edge lighting technology.
This version of the game uses full patch tracing instead of activating ray tracing for one or two particular effects. That means all lightning in the title takes place with rays, offering impressively realistic shadows, lightning, reflections, and so on.
Nvidia started with the beta by launching six creator-developed worlds build to depict different ray tracing effects and Minecraft’s new physically-based textures. On Thursday, the company revealed five more, bringing the total number of Nvidia-supported RTX worlds to 11.
Here is how the company describes each world – word by word:
- “Hilltop Lifestyle RTX by PearlescentMoon – From the creator of Color, Light, and Shadow RTX from the first releases, Hilltop Lifestyle RTX is survival spawn set in a new outdoor map utilizing many of the concepts, advancements, and features demonstrated in her previous ray tracing and physically-based texture showcase. In this new world, users will explore the beautiful Hilltop Lifestyle island, and learn to live off of the land in its Italian-inspired village.”
- “Egg Hunt by Feed The Beast – Set deep underground, Egg Hunt is a new standalone mini-game featuring a mysterious cave filled with puzzles, traps, secrets, and fun challenges. The goal is to find the hidden eggs, in order to complete the two game modes in the fastest time possible.”
- “Medieval RTX by Aurelien_Sama – Medieval RTX is a survival spawn that features an idyllic medieval village nestled below an ancient ruin, with god-rays from the setting sun shining happily through the town. As night falls and the shadows grow longer and darker, danger awaits.”
- “The Dark Village RTX by Wyld – The Dark Village RTX is a survival spawnset inan abandoned village that lies overgrown in the forest, where effigies of the missing stand long-forgotten. Underneath this village lies the realm of hidden horrors. Players will follow the quest, solve interactive puzzles, discover secrets, and experience-rich ray-traced shadows to see if your sanity survives as days pass.”
- “The Observer RTX by IamSp00n – Classified as an adventure, The Observer RTX is a world that starts deep underground. The player explores their newfound surroundings, uncovering the mysteries of the entombed vault they are stuck in. Along the way, they discover the lore of the land to reveal the fate of the Observer’s denizens.”
You can find all the Nvidia-sponsored worlds in the Marketplace of the Windows 10 version of Minecraft. All you need to access these worlds is Windows 10, a copy of Minecraft from the Microsoft Store, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 20-series graphics card, because those are the only GPUs that support build-in real-time ray tracing hardware.
In addition, you will also have to register in the Minecraft beta in order to get the RTX-enabled version of the game.
