Usually when a new video releases to show off some fantastic new build in Minecraft, it's coming from a fan or channel that specializes in making huge undertakings within the game. However, a recent video released by Nvidia was made to show off exactly what players can expect to see from the advancements of ray tracing with RTX that have recently been added to the game.
This specific build does come from a Minecraft content creator who goes by Minecraft Middle-Earth and specializes in bringing areas from the Lord of the Rings franchise to life within the blocky sandbox. Now, by combining the creator's efforts with the power that Nvidia's RTX can support, the hardware giant now has the perfect way to show off exactly what its most powerful graphics cards are capable of.
The build takes the player to Minas Tirith, the capital city of Gondor from the Lord of the Rings franchise, with the lighting and textures enhanced by the ray tracing introduced to Minecraft in 2020. As a result of these new enhancements on how the technique renders everything from textures to lights, some of these shots look unrecognizable as having come from a game as simple as Minecraft. Seeing all of these elements come together really emphasizes exactly how drastic of a change RTX can make when even Mojang's blocky, pixelated graphics can be made cinematic with ray tracing.
Choosing Minas Tirith makes the effects particularly impressive, since the area is almost uniformly colored, making the scope of the build almost require good lighting for the different levels and textures to stand out. That being said, the effect comes off remarkably, with shadows casting on the individual pieces that brings the entire city together and make what would otherwise look like a grey-white blob shine through stark contrasts of lighting effects. This type of enhancement to the game could be exactly what Mojang needed in order to keep Minecraft sustainable through the foreseeable future.
For many fans who either don't have access to RTX level graphics yet, or maybe haven't tooled around inside of Minecraft, a video like this could be an eye-opener to bring them back to the game. Otherwise, this just shows the lengths that the Minecraft modding community can go now that ray tracing is native to the users that have access to the right hardware. One less mod that has to run to meet a desired outcome means one more that can be added before pushing the game too far, which could make all the difference to the wider community still diving into the ultimate sandbox title.
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