The RTX beta for Minecraft (Win 10) is here. Those with a rig powerful enough can jump into the Minecraft RTX open beta to experience the game with enhanced graphics such as ray tracing.
As you can see from the trailer above, Minecraft with RTX enabled looks stunning. Ray tracing allows the game to render almost lifelike lighting effects. Water becomes naturally more reflective and shadows are more realistic.
To access the beta, you’re going to need a pretty up to date PC. The Minecraft website details the minimum specs required to run the game with all of its ray tracing goodness. You will need a minimum spec GPU of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, Intel Core i5 CPU or equivalent and 8GB+ of RAM.
If you’re not already in the Minecraft Windows 10 Beta , here’s what you need to do to get involved according to the Minecraft Help Centre:
- Install the Xbox Insider Hub app on your PC (it is available for free in the Windows Store)
- Inside the app, click on the open box icon in the sidebar on the left
- On the Insider content screen, you will see a beta available for Minecraft for Windows 10. Click on the Minecraft for Windows 10 beta
- Click the “Join” button at the bottom of the screen
- On the following pop-up, you will see three radio buttons- one will be for Minecraft RTX Beta, one for Minecraft Beta, one for Unenroll. Choose Minecraft RTX Beta, then click Done.
- If you have automatic updates on from the Windows Store, Minecraft will automatically update to the latest RTX beta build available.
If you’re already enrolled in the Minecraft for Windows 10 Beta , things are slightly more complicated, but following these steps will have you back in the game in no time:
- Open the Xbox Insider Hub app
- Inside the app, click on the open box icon in the sidebar on the left
- On the Insider content screen, you will just see one Minecraft for Win 10 Beta offering under Joined. Click on it.
- In this screen, click on Manage.
- In the Manage screen, you will have a radio button that will allow you to choose to enrol in the RTX Beta or to Unenroll from the beta program entirely. Select the RTX beta & click on the Done button to the left
- You may need to uninstall Minecraft and reinstall it from the store in order to download the RTX beta. Please back up any worlds you wish you keep before uninstalling as otherwise the worlds will be deleted when you uninstall the game. Minecraft saved worlds can be found in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds – each folder within the minecraftWorlds folder is a world. Please save it somewhere on your PC that is not within the Minecraft directory. You can also export worlds directly from Minecraft to your PC’s desktop.
There are several creator-built worlds that are available to download. The Minecraft Help Centre states that any world opened while on the RTX can not then be opened in other betas or the non-beta version of the game. The Minecraft team recommends making a copy of the world you wish to use in the RTX beta and using that copied version instead. Here’s how to import and export worlds to and from the beta:
Import :
From the Minecraft start screen, click “PLAY”
Click the arrow icon next to the “Create New” button on the Worlds screen
Find the .mcworld file and select it to import.
You can also open .mcworld files just by double-clicking on them- this will automatically open Minecraft and load the world.
Export :
From the Minecraft start screen, click “PLAY”
In the Worlds screen, scroll to find the world you wish to export.
Click on the pencil icon next to the world you want to export.
In the Edit screen, click on the “Game” button located under the words “Edit Settings”
Scroll down through the options on the right side of the menu, and then click “Export World” at the bottom of the list
Save the world to your location of choice. The exported .mcworld file can be placed anywhere (network drive, USB, etc.) to provide maximum flexibility.