Microsoft has clarified that it has no plans to add ray tracing to console versions of Minecraft. The publisher confirmed that the option appeared in the beta version of the game by mistake.
A message appeared on Twitter:
“The previous version of Minecraft Preview available to members of the Xbox Insiders Program erroneously included prototype code with support for ray tracing on consoles.”
“This prototype code has now been removed from the Preview and does not signify plans to implement ray tracing support on consoles in the near future.”
This means that work on the solution is ongoing, so the word “nearest” can be key in the above statement. An unusual addition to the test versions of the Xbox Series X|S was discovered by Tom Warren of The Verge on Tuesday, demonstrating the corresponding slider in the graphics options. At first glance, ray tracing works well. Microsoft announced support for Enhanced Lighting back in 2019, but so far the feature has only made it to the PC version.