Ray-tracing is all the rage when it comes to video game graphics these days, and while the feature still isn't supported in many games, that hasn't stopped some players from cooking up their own mods that enable the feature in older titles. Even in a game as old and cartoony as Minecraft, the feature looks stellar, which speaks volumes about how good the next-gen shadow technology can make games look.

With ray-tracing enabled, the typical Minecraft sunset goes from being an everyday video game recreation of the sun to a thing of pure beauty. It's incredibly impressive seeing how the shadows reflect off of the game's different surfaces, and even more impressive seeing how the lighting can affect the ambiance of the game's interiors. It's almost an entirely different experience from that of the original game, mostly because of how meditative the experience becomes with such serene scenery.

Minecraft is one of the most popular and recognizable games of all time, so the drastic effect ray-tracing has on the game should be immediately apparent to the vast majority of gamers- and probably some parents as well. If anything, it should get fans ready for the next generation of game consoles, as the PS5 specs were recently confirmed by Sony Lead System Architect Mike Cerny, who confirmed that ray-tracing support would be coming to the next-gen system.

The next Xbox is reportedly more powerful than the PS5 too, so there's a good chance that the ray-traced shadows on that system will be even sharper than the PS5's. And while the odds of a Minecraft 2 don't seem incredibly likely, even despite the game's success, this is likely what a sequel would look like on next-generation hardware, or at least as close as one could reasonably get.

Of course, this isn't the first graphical mod for Minecraft. Plenty of others have popped up before, like the texture pack that completely overhauls how Minecraft looksNeedless to say, the two mods used in conjunction with each other would only make the game look that much better. While a game's looks aren't the most important thing, these improvements will surely make some people want to get back to smashing bricks.

Minecraft is available now on all major platforms.