After being announced last year, Microsoft and Mojang are finally opening the gates to a whole new era of Minecraft, this time powered by Nvidia's RTX ray-tracing software. Minecraft RTX is going into open beta on April 16, and anyone with the hardware to support it can join in.

Minecraft RTX is limited to the Windows 10 Bedrock Edition of Minecraft, and you can participate by simply opting into the public beta channel from the settings menu in-game. When the update rolls out, you'll be able to explore your worlds with full path-tracing. Nvidia suggested that cards from their RTX line specifically will best support this (although supported on older generations, performance will be severely diminished).

There are some limitations to what the beta will support, however. Right now, Minecraft RTX won't allow you to create multiplayer realms or feature crossplay with mobile and console versions of the game. There are also still some visual issues that need to be ironed out before release, and Nvidia is hoping the community will help test this big visual overhaul with them. Both survival and creation modes are supported, so you can at least choose how to play, albeit by yourself.