Minecraft got RTX support on Windows 10 way back at the end of 2020, letting you toggle ray-tracing so that you can experience your worlds with real-time lighting techniques that essentially serve as beefed-up, official shader packs. However, Xbox Series and PS5 fans have been left waiting, and waiting, and waiting, as the RTX option taunts them with a greyed-out checkbox. But it might finally be arriving all these years later.
That's according to Xbox insider Idle Sloth who shared a discovery made by @xKingDarkYT and @pluginer_tr. In yesterday's preview build, both found hidden graphic options in the files pertaining to ray tracing. There's the simple 'rayTraced =Ray Traced', as well as 'rayTraed=Ray Traed Graphic Options', sparking speculation that console support will be unveiled at the upcoming Xbox Showcase on June 11.
As for what the option looks like in-game, it comes under the 'Graphics Mode' setting after 'Simple', 'Fancy', and 'Deferred Technical Preview'. However, we have not seen what it looks like in action on console, so it's unclear how the Xbox Series X will perform with Minecraft's ray tracing.
It's worth noting that, on PC, it isn't as simple as ticking the ray tracing box to bring it into effect. You need to download a compatible resource pack. There are official ones from Nvidia but also fan-made ones on several of the many resource pack-dedicated websites. 'Websites' is the key word, as these packs are third-party and require you to go outside of Minecraft to acquire them, rather than using its built-in storefront. That only houses RTX levels.
If Minecraft is getting RTX on Xbox Series X, that likely means that we'll either see packs added to the storefront or a built-in option to make the toggle work. If it does come to the store, we'll have to wait and see if they're free or paid. There are a lot of unknown factors that we can only speculate about, but with the Direct mere weeks away, maybe we won't have to wait too long to find out.
On the same day as the Xbox Showcase, you can also catch a dedicated Starfield Direct, and for those in America, you can sign up to watch it on the silver screen for some reason. Nothing like a theatre trip to watch a giant Todd Howard talk about games, eh?