The latest Minecraft Preview build contained raytracing but Microsoft says it was “inadvertently included” and that players shouldn’t expect it to come to consoles in the near future before removing it from the build.
Just a few days ago, The Verge reporter Tom Warren (opens in new tab) spotted that the latest Minecraft Preview has been optimized for Xbox Series X|S and has early raytracing support. It was thought that this could be a sign of what was to come, but Microsoft took to Twitter via the official Minecraft Twitter (opens in new tab) account to clear things up.
In the tweet, the Xbox company said: “The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for raytracing support on Xbox consoles.” Before going on to say, “this early prototype code has been removed from Preview and doesn’t signal near future plans to bring raytracing support to consoles.” So at least for now, Xbox owners shouldn’t get too excited about raytracing coming to consoles.
The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for raytracing support on Xbox consoles. This early prototype code has been removed from Preview and doesn’t signal near future plans to bring raytracing support to consoles.March 31, 2022
See more
In case you missed the original news, the new Preview build of Minecraft released earlier this week exclusively to Xbox Insider members. Players who are signed up to the Xbox preview program get early access to upcoming updates or games ahead of launch, so this version of Minecraft wasn’t available to everyone.
It was thought that due to only being available to Xbox Insider members that this is a sign of what’s to come, but as we know now, that’s not the case, at least for the near future.
Minecraft The Wild update | Minecraft cheats | Best Minecraft servers | Minecraft Realms | Best Minecraft seeds | Best Minecraft mods | Best Minecraft shaders | Best Minecraft skins | Best Minecraft texture packs | Play Minecraft for free | Minecraft Forge | Minecraft download