The Minecraft Preview Loses Xbox Ray Tracing Support After It Was Added By Mistake

Microsoft has announced that Xbox ray tracing has been removed from the Minecraft Preview version after the prototype code was added by mistake.

After offering Insiders the opportunity to test ray tracing support on Xbox Series X and S consoles earlier this week, the publisher has decided the optimization option will no longer be available on the Minecraft Preview. Microsoft also confirmed that it doesn't plan on bringing ray tracing to consoles in the future.

"The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for ray tracing support on Xbox consoles," the Twitter post reads. "This early prototype code has been removed from Preview and doesn't signal near future plans to bring raytracing support to consoles."

Although Microsoft has stated that its plans don't include raytracing on consoles any time soon, it's entirely possible Minecraft players could see more optimization features be added to the building game in the future, but the developers just aren't ready yet.

The Verge tested the Minecraft Preview build and found that the ray tracing support was early, unoptimized code that required workarounds to work properly. Ray tracing is only currently available on the Windows PC version of Minecraft.

Minecraft Preview is a new standalone app that's designed to replace the Bedrock Beta program for testing the game's beta builds and is only available on iOS, Windows 10/11, and Xbox. It's also included along with the base game for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.