Minecraft is getting a free update that brings much-improved lighting and color to the game’s blocky graphics using real-time ray tracing running on Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics hardware. The new look is a dramatic change in the atmospherics of the game, and manages to be eerily realistic while retaining Minecraft’s pixelated charm.
The ray-tracing tech will be available via a free update to the game on Windows 10 PCs, but it’ll only be accessible to players using an Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU, as that’s the only graphics hardware on the market that currently supports playing games with real-time ray tracing active.
It sounds like it’ll be an excellent addition to the experience for players who are equipped with the right hardware — including lighting effects not only from the sun, but also from in-game materials like glowstone and lava; both hard and soft shadows depending on transparency of material and angle of light refraction; and accurate reflections in surfaces that are supposed to be reflective (i.e. gold blocks, for instance).
This is welcome news after Minecraft developer Mojang announced last week that it canceled plans to release its Super Duper Graphics Pack, which was going to add a bunch of improved visuals to the game because it wouldn’t work well across platforms. At the time, Mojang said it would be sharing news about graphics optimization for some platforms “very soon,” and it looks like this is what they had in mind.
Nvidia, meanwhile, is showing off at Gamescom 2019 in Cologne, Germany a range of 2019 games with real-time ray tracing enabled, including Dying Light 2, Cyperpunk 2077, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Watch Dogs: Legion.
The new “Spider-Man: Far From Home” trailer catches up with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in a world needing new heroes after “Avengers: Endgame.” USA TODAY
On Tuesday, negotiations broke down between Disney and Sony Pictures for future Spider-Man films, sending fans into a panic.
What’s going on? Sony has controlled the rights to the web-slinger since 1999, but the two studios have been happily (or so we thought) sharing Spider-Man across a plethora of films since 2015, including a major emotional role in the latest “Avengers” movies. As part of the previous agreement, Marvel had also been acting as a producer on the 2017 and 2019 standalone Sony “Spider-Man” movies starring Tom Holland, which were both box-office blockbusters.
In a Sony statement to USA TODAY Tuesday night, the studio said the outstanding issue remained over the future involvement of Marvel President, and comic movie mastermind, Kevin Feige as producer in future Spider-man films.
“Much of today’s news about Spider-Man has mischaracterized recent discussions about Kevin Feige’s involvement in the franchise,” the statement said. “We are disappointed, but respect Disney’s decision not to have him continue as a lead producer of our next live action Spider-Man film. We hope this might change in the future.”
“Kevin is terrific and we are grateful for his help and guidance and appreciate the path he has helped put us on, which we will continue,” the statement continued.
With a Hollywood divorce looking imminent, Twitter had a meltdown imagining the fate of its beloved teenage superhero. The Twitter hashtag #SaveSpiderMan, however steeped in irrational emotion, went viral Tuesday.
Here’s what you need to know about what could happen next for Spidey.
Spider-Man may not be in Marvel movies anymore.
If Sony and Disney can’t come to a deal, Spidey might not be in Marvel movies in the near future – but he probably wouldn’t be anyway, unless for some reason he was supposed to be in “Black Widow” or “The Eternals,” the MCU’s next two films (which is highly doubtful). There’s plenty of time to work stuff out.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean that Spider-Man won’t be part of the MCU going forward,” a person familiar with the negotiations but not authorized to speak publicly told USA TODAY. “This story is just about producer credit.”
Twitter user @epeytonhudson wrote, “Don’t be okay with an MCU-less Spidey! The audience has plenty of power here. #SaveSpiderMan.”
Don’t be okay with an MCU-less Spidey! The audience has plenty of power here. #SaveSpiderMan
That distress was echoed by Twitter user @JayRecinos, who wrote, “When you find out that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man may no longer be part of the MCU #SpiderMan #SaveSpiderMan #Spidey,” along with a GIF of Sadness from “Inside Out.”
Twitter user @BrandonDavisBD summed up every fan’s fears with a photo of Spider-Man holding his head in his hands. “Live look at literally every Spider-Man fan right now,” he wrote.
Live look at literally every Spider-Man fan right now
But there WILL still be Spider-Man movies.
Holland’s webby hero is coming off his most successful outing to date, with this year’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” grossing more than $1.109 billion. That’s Sony’s most popular film ever, overtaking James Bond in “Skyfall” ($1.108 billion).
Deadline reports that there are two more Spider-Man films in the works with director Jon Watts and Holland, with Watts still finalizing his deal with Sony. Barring any dramatic change, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige won’t be the lead creative producer on these films. But Spider-Man will spin his web.
This is really about money, obviously.
Disney and Sony Pictures have failed to reach new terms that would have given the former a 50/50 co-financing stake going forward, which means that the web-slinger will no longer be part of the MCU, according to Deadline.
Per IndieWire, on the last two Spider-Man movies, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” Disney took a smaller percentage of profits from each in exchange for Sony allowing Marvel to use the character in “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
With Marvel plotting out Phase 4 of its cinematic universe, no one is surprised that Disney wanted to renegotiate terms, but according to Deadline, Disney’s offer for a 50/50 co-financing arrangement between the studios wasn’t even met by a counter from Sony. So, no dice, so far.
Sony has been busy expanding its own comic-book universe, with a planned “Venom” sequel starring Tom Hardy, an upcoming Morbius film with Jared Leto, a Kraven the Hunter film and another spinoff with the characters Silver Sable and Black Cat.
Me and all the other MCU Fans on our way to burn down Sony HQ
But fans are … mad.
“Me and all the other MCU Fans on our way to burn down Sony HQ,” @rodneyn95 wrote on Twitter, with video of superheroes in the final “Avengers” battle.
Sony has complete control of Peter Parker again, which makes a Venom crossover much more likely in the future.
How do you solve a problem like Peter Parker? News broke Tuesday that Sony and Marvel Studios have split and will no longer work on future Spider-Man films together. Sony and Marvel’s falling out doesn’t just mean that Kevin Feige won’t get a producer credit on any future Spider-Man movies; it almost certainly means that Tom Holland’s version of the wall-crawler is going to be absent from the Marvel Cinematic Universe effective immediately, despite both studios having spent the last three years ensuring that Spider-Man is a central part of what audiences think of when they think “Marvel.”
Ultimately, this is far more of a problem for Marvel than it is for Sony; for all that the latter might lose the cache of having an MCU cameo or two in future Spider-Man movies — or, more importantly, the certainty of the Marvel Studios creative touch — it would be easy enough for Sony’s future Spider-Man movies to just never mention the Avengers anymore, or refer to characters and events indirectly to keep IP lawyers from getting too jittery.
Additionally, bringing Spider-Man back to a prospective Sonyverse means that the possibility of his meeting Tom Hardy’s Venom, or Jared Leto’s Morbius, currently in production, has just significantly increased, much to the delight of internet meme makers everywhere.
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM except it is kevin feige listening to amy pascal
For those nervous that losing Marvel from the Spidey moviemaking decision process — not the most unreasonable response, considering the confused state of Sony’s Spider-slate before the Marvel partnership was announced in early 2015 — let’s remember that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse writers/producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller are already developing new Spider-Man ideas for Sony, albeit the TV side. How difficult would it be to get them to start thinking of more big-screen ideas, too…?
For Marvel, however, there’s a bit more of a problem. Since his introduction in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man has been an increasingly integral part of the MCU. Outside of his two solo movies since then, he was also one of the most visible characters in Avengers: Infinity War, and his death in that movie proved to be one of the primary motivators for Tony Stark’s actions in Avengers: Endgame the following year. The most recent solo pic, Spider-Man: Far From Home, not only was responsible for introducing the new status quo of the MCU, but it also seemed to tease the next big multi-movie storyline for Marvel Studios. Spider-Man, it was clear, was very important to the MCU.
And now, he won’t be there.
On the one hand, this won’t be an immediate problem for Marvel — note that there was no Spider-Man movie announced as part of Marvel’s Phase IV at San Diego Comic-Con last month — but on the other… How, exactly, is Marvel going to dance around the fact that it can no longer feature the character who — in the very last Marvel movie released — was the face of the MCU superheroes?
It could, of course, simply not mention him and hope that everyone in the audience understands why, but that seems like a somewhat risky move given the vocal demands of the fan base. There’s the potential for some comic, cosmic switcheroo storyline that literally replaces Spider-Man with characters from the Fantastic Four or X-Men franchises, which would arguably give those introductions additional narrative weight (and could explain why no one has heard of those characters to this point).
Perhaps this is too premature. In 2012, as The Avengers were hitting the big screen, it seemed unthinkable that Spider-Man would be joining them in a Civil War movie four years later. Perhaps Sony and Marvel will make peace and craft a deal to maintain the integrity of the MCU, such as it is. But if not, don’t be too surprised if the fifth Avengers movie opens with Doctor Strange looking at an indistinct corpse in a mortuary and commenting that, yes, it’s Peter and it’s such a shame that the accident left him utterly unrecognizable and he’ll be an inspiration to everyone moving forward. It’s what he would have wanted.
During his August 12 episode of ‘Last Week I Asked You’, YouTube king Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg teased a special Minecraft reward once he hits his next subscriber milestone.
PewDiePie is quickly approaching 100 million subscribers, making him the highest subbed independent creator on the platform.
During the YouTuber’s latest episode of LWIAY – a show where he comments on user-submitted content from his Reddit community – he enticed his audience to subscribe by promising a 12-hour Minecraft live stream once he hits his next subscriber milestone.
A 12-hour Minecraft livestream
Back in July, the Swede promised a 12-hour live stream if his video got more than two million likes in 24 hours, but unfortunately viewers were not able to do it in time. So his 12-hour stream challenge has become a bit of a meme with his fan-base.
One of the submissions in the episode directly referenced it, with the popular Grand Theft Auto San Andreas meme. “12 hour Minecraft Livestream at 100 mil. Ah shit, here we go again,” it said, showing the GTA protagonist in front of a Google account creation window.
PewDiePie then laughed: “are we at 99 yet? Come on gamers!?”
YOUTUBE: PEWDIEPIEThe YouTube star challenged his audience to subscribe for a 12-hour Minecraft live stream.
Another submission pointed out the fact that after he hits 100 million, the next video was just going to be “another beautiful day in Minecraft.” The YouTube star laughed and said “No-one is gonna want anything else. Let’s be real here.”
The Swede then stopped the show to repeat his request from earlier. “Come on gamers! 12 hour livestream at 100 million. Subscribe!” he said, clapping in between each word, emphasizing the challenge.
(Timestamp of 05:44 for mobile viewers.)
Fans are desperate for the livestream
Fans desperately want the YouTube star to do the live stream, so the challenge from a month ago has inspired a ton of memes over on his ‘PewDiePieSubmissions’ subreddit, which has built momentum towards the stream possibly happening.
Reddit user ‘meme_lordxd420‘ posted a meme that references Thanos from the Avengers film. “12 hour Minecraft Livestream at 100 mil. A small price to pay for 1,500,000 9 year olds,” it read.
REDDIT: MEME_LORDXD420Memes like this have been gaining momentum over on Reddit, as fans desperately want the live stream
It’s tough to say if PewDiePie will actually do a 12-hour live stream of Minecraft – after-all when he was about to hit 50 million subs, he promised he would delete his whole channel. Which obviously didn’t happen.
Mojang is officially pulling the plug on Minecraft’s high-end graphics overhaul, announcing today that the Super Duper Graphics Pack it announced at E3 back in 2017 will no longer see the light of day.
The reason for the cancelation, Mojang notes in a post on the Minecraft website, is the addition proved too difficult to implement in the game without having a significant impact on Minecraft‘s performance.
The pack aimed to build Xbox One X and high-end PC targeted enhancements into Mojang’s still-thriving blocky builder, including 4K and HDR support, new shaders, and lighting effects.
On any project, it can be difficult to know when to cut your losses when something just isn’t working out, especially when years of resources and work have been poured into the feature in question. For Mojang, the decision comes after rebuilding parts of Minecraft’s Bedrock Engine to work with the overhaul and years of quiet delays.
At the end of the day however, Mojang says that the game couldn’t perform at an acceptable level with the graphics pack running, and made the call back away from the project.
“Super Duper was an ambitious initiative that brought a new look to Minecraft but, unfortunately, the pack proved too technically demanding to implement as planned,” explains the team. “We realize this is disappointing to some of you – there was a lot of enthusiasm for Super Duper from inside and outside the studio – but unfortunately, we aren’t happy with how the pack performed across devices. For this reason, we’re stopping development on the pack, and looking into other ways for you to experience Minecraft with a new look.”
Minecraft itself has been around since 2009, and released in earnest in 2011. Despite its age, Microsoft-owned Mojang keeps a steady flow of updates headed to the game and keeps the attention of millions across several platforms. As of this May, Minecraft has sold over 176 million copies and, as of last October, maintained 91 million monthly active users.
More than two years after its initial unveiling, Mojang has finally confirmed that Minecraft’s very-long-awaited Super Duper Graphics Pack is no longer in development.
Mojang initially announced the Super Duper Graphics Pack alongside Minecraft’s Better Together update. While the latter was a core system update, moving all platforms (except PS4) to the game’s new Bedrock version and enabling cross-play in the process, the Super Duper Graphics update was all about aesthetics; it would give the survival game a massive, optional visual overhaul, initially launching alongside the then-imminent Xbox One X version.
Better Together would bring 4K HDR support, as well as improved lighting, water, and shadows, but Super Duper Graphics would, according to Mojang’s enthusiastic announcement blog, usher in all sorts of “excessive visual razzmatazz”, including dynamic shadows, directional lighting, and edge highlighting. “Light will filter in shimmering rays through cotton clouds,” it gushed, “dappling the ground beneath fluttering foliage, and sparkling on the rippling waters.” It even accompanied the announcement with an extremely lavish musical trailer:
As 2017 drew to a close, however, Mojang announced that it would be delaying the release of the Super Duper update into the following year, writing that, “there’s a lot of work to be done”. And from then on out, updates grew increasingly scarce, leaving many to ponder its fate.
And, today, an answer has arrived in the form of a new post on the Minecraft website. “Super Duper was an ambitious initiative that brought a new look to Minecraft,” explained Mojang, “but, unfortunately, the pack proved too technically demanding to implement as planned.”
“There was a lot of enthusiasm for Super Duper from inside and outside the studio,” it continued, “but unfortunately, we aren’t happy with how the pack performed across devices. For this reason, we’re stopping development on the pack, and looking into other ways for you to experience Minecraft with a new look.”
