Sonic Ether’s Unbelievable Shaders is a shaderpack that adds the kinds of effects we normally associate with ray-tracing— like light that’s able to bounce off other objects—to ol’ blocky-ass Minecraft, and do it while you’re playing in real-time.
It’s not technically ray-tracing (he’s actually using path-tracing), but the effects are still incredible. Here are some examples of it in action:
And here are some screens showing it off on some more traditional areas:
You can download what you need by pledging $10 over on Sonic Ether’s Patreon page. Just know that the effects here are software-based, so you’ll need a decent PC to get a good framerate.
As old as Minecraft is, I’ll never get tired of appreciating just how good it looks when people put the effort in. I know a lot of games can get modded to Hell and back and look great, but there’s something about the distance blocky ol’ Minecraft has to travel to get there that makes it particularly special.
Case in point: this absolutely stunning house, made by umsoea using all kinds of tricks like shaders and custom textures. The architecture is definitely helping sell the whole thing here; a modern house like this is naturally blocky, removing one of the great obstacles Minecraft builds tend to have before they can look “real”.
But neither that fact, or the framerate (it’s…bad) can take away from just how good this looks. This wasn’t built for smooth gameplay and digging underground, this was built to marvel at, and I’ve been doing a lot of that today.
You can find links to download the stuff you need for this here.
Ever since its original debut way back in 2009 (if you can believe it), Minecraft has become a global gaming phenomenon, attracting millions of fans, young and old alike, to its incredibly addicting gameplay and easy-to-learn creation tools. Due to how popular it has become, Minecraft has become home to tons of high-quality merchandise items over the years. Here are our favorites.
The Pig Riders Adult T-Shirt for adults is the perfect way to show your Minecraft spirit. The design is cool, yet not overly flashy in any way. In addition, it’s made out of 50% cotton and 50% polyester, which ensures a nice balance between comfort and shrink-resistance.$10 at Minecraft
The Midnight Chase Youth T-Shirt features an awesome-looking design with iconic Minecraft characters like Steve, zombies, and a creeper, and it’s made with 100% ring-spun cotton for maximum comfort.$15 at Minecraft
This 1TB Xbox One S model comes with an awesome-looking Minecraft skin that’s reminiscent of the dirt blocks you see in-game. It comes with a sweet creeper-themed Xbox One controller, too.$335 at Amazon
This is the same controller that comes with the Minecraft Xbox One S, but it’s sold separately. The sickly green creeper color looks super cool, and the controller also comes with textured grips for enhanced comfort and Minecraft font on the buttons.$58 at Amazon
The Pig Xbox controller features the iconic face and color of the adorable pigs you can find in Minecraft, and like the creeper-themed controller, the grips are textured and the ABXY buttons have Minecraft font on them.$60 at Amazon
This Steve costume is a fantastic way for your little one to dress up Minecraft-style. It offers a boxy and easy-to-wear suit and a large, 10-inch mask that fits comfortably over a child’s face.$33 at Minecraft
The Creeper Rush Cap is the best baseball cap-style hat available officially for Minecraft, featuring a sleek black-and-green look with three creepers on the front. In addition, it’s also got an awesome mesh back that helps keep your head cool in high heat.$20 at Minecraft
The Creeper Stripe Beanie shares the same sleek black-and-green look as the Creeper Rush Cap, and its got a 100% acrylic knit construction that will keep the head warm in the cold.$20 at Minecraft
This neat little wallet features a cool design that will remind players of their spider-riding adventures, and it doesn’t look overly crazy style or color-wise, which is great. Additionally, it has a translucent ID slot and five slots for various card types.$20 at Minecraft
The Creepy Creeper backpack is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a new backpack. Its creeper-themed design is super cool, and it also has enough room inside for a full 17-inch laptop, books, and plenty of various other items.$30 at Minecraft
The Dirt Block Lunchbox is a roomy 8.5-inch container perfect for holding your lunch throughout the day, and its design features a detailed rendition of the iconic Minecraft dirt block.$15 at Minecraft
The Grand Adventure Creeper Plush is a soft and fluffy 16-inch tall plush made out of polyester fibers, meaning that it’s both fun to play with and comfortable for children to snuggle with in bed.$30 at Minecraft
The Mining Steve Action Figure is a fully-articulated, 5-inch action figure of the iconic Minecraft character Steve. In addition to the figure simply looking awesome, you can even make Steve swing his pickaxe, adding play value into the mix.$15 at Minecraft
The LEGO Minecraft: The End Battle set depicts the famous “final boss fight” of Minecraft, offering buyers Dragonslayer, Ender Dragon, and Enderman figures to build. They’ll also get a code to unlock the Dragonslayer skin in-game.$20 at Minecraft
The LEGO Minecraft: The Melon Farm set depicts a dangerous encounter between a creeper and Steve, his pig steed, and a villager. You also get a chest and a handful of food item pieces for setting up a diorama.$30 at Amazon
The Light-up Adventure Sword is an awesome handheld toy that looks like the sword from the game. It also lights up and makes cool sounds thanks to its triple AA batteries, with the first set of these included in the box.$35 at Minecraft
The Minecraft Graphic Novel is a new story that features protagonist Jack and his friends attempting to challenge and take down the infamous Ender Dragon. It’s got 88 pages, so there’s plenty of fun reading to be had here.$10 at Minecraft
This 76-by-86-inch set features a full-sized comforter, fitted and flat sheets, and pillowcases make the perfect bedding set for any young Minecraft player. The design looks awesome, and the whole package is made out of warm polyester material and fill.$75 at Minecraft
If we had to choose
There’s a ridiculous amount of officially-licensed merchandise out there for Minecraft, and chances are, there’s something out there that will suit your needs or desires no matter what they are. If I had to choose one for myself, though, I would go with the Pig Riders Adult T-Shirt, as I think the design is really cool, yet not overly crazy as to draw unwanted attention to me while I’m out-and-about. Plus, you can get it at a fantastic price, which you often can’t say about brand shirts.
People looking for something for the kids to play with should check out the Light-up Adventure Sword for its cool electronic effects that add plenty of play value, as well as the design and shape which is accurate to the swords you see in the full game. If you;re picking something up for someone who loves to read, then the 88-page adventure story within the Minecraft Graphic Novel will be perfect due to its neat take on the Minecraft art direction, as well as the fairly large size of the story overall.
NetEase Games has announced that in China, Minecraft is no joke and players correlate it to something very serious. Huge numbers have surfaced, pinpointing Minecraft’s success in China, leading to a transcultural success. Mods, player base, downloads, everything has been exposed and NetEase Games is glad to announce its recent success.
Minecraft has always been an intriguing video game, and since early release, it never lost the sense of content. It is definitely the title in which you can have proper fun, without even being pushed to, or bothered to do any forced actions.
In China’s gaming industry, Minecraft is arguably one of the most downloaded games, as thanks to the recent press release it can be easily confirmed. NetEase, the local Minecraft Publisher, has stated, mods created by 2100 developers have been downloaded 1.36 billion times. These numbers come only from the domestic players, achieving a new milestone of 200 million players.
As the press release reads:
According to Minecraft’s local publisher NetEase Games, 25,000 Minecraft mods created by over 2,100 developers have been downloaded 1.36 billion times in China with its domestic registered players passing a milestone of 200 million, making China one of the biggest blocks of the sandbox legend.
When navigating the world largest and fast-growing game market, many western games are facing cultural barriers. Minecraft’s transcultural success, however, could be explained by how it has become integrated into modern China and also its glorious past. Thanks to a dynamic and creative Minecraft community deeply rooted in the local culture, many projects are currently being built to represent the ancient Chinese architecture in the game.
The transcultural noun stands for a reason, as community and modders have managed to recreate some of the most iconic places in China, within Minecraft itself. Overall, many projects that are present in the ancient Chinese architecture have been built in the game, and it is about to continue within the same pace.
As stated by NetEase Games:
Minecraft China is being used to revive historic icons, such as the Forbidden City, and to provide the public with a more interactive way to cherish them on mobile devices or PCs. The National Architect & Cthuwork Studio spent over three years recreating the Imperial Palace within the Forbidden city which used over 100 million Minecraft blocks in its construction.
Such as the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, see pic below:
Not to mention the recent loss of France, the Notre-Dame cathedral which left the whole world shook, being reflected with a precious line of blocks in Minecraft. 100 Minecraft blocks were needed for its complete creation. Take a look at the image below:
All of this surely confirms the Minecraft sensation in China, and its vast success with over 1.36 billion downloads. This definitely marks Minecraft’s transcultural success in China.
Mojang has released a new 1.14.1 snapshot that fixes bugs found in update 1.14. Find out everything new and changes in the 1.14.1 pre-release, here.
It’s been two weeks since the release of Minecraft’s massive 1.14 Village & Pillage update, and while the update came with a ton of exciting new changes, it also brought a plethora of bugs and glitches to hammer out. To address these early release issues, Mojang has deployed its first pre-release of version 1.14.1. In this snapshot, the company addresses numerous reported gameplay and performance issues. Players testing the pre-release should see performance and stability improvements such as better enderman and villager AI as well as improvements to chunk rendering. Meanwhile, quirks like flame enchanted bows not igniting TNT or missing raid sound effects have also been fixed. The list of fixes is substantial so we’ve provided a complete rundown of all that’s new and changed in the 1.14.1 pre-release, below. Players who want to test the 1.14.1 pre-release, can install the snapshot by opening the Minecraft Launcher and enabling snapshots in the “Launch Options” tab. To prevent corruption, players are advised to backup their worlds or run the snapshot in a different folder than their main worlds. The devs are also encouraging players to report any bugs they encounter after installing the 1.14.1 pre-release on the official Minecraft bug tracker.RELATED STORIES
Best answer: For now, no. When we asked Minecraft Earth creative director Jesse Merriam, he said definitively that Minecraft Earth is only coming to iOS and Android devices.
Best affordable phone for Minecraft Earth: Pixel 3A ($400 at Amazon)
Why Minecraft Earth isn’t coming to Windows 10 devices
Minecraft Earth is an upcoming augmented reality game from Microsoft, built in a similar vein to Pokemon Go. In Minecraft Earth, players will partake in augmented reality adventures, able to explore miniature Minecraft-style worlds full of blocks for crafting and building.
To participate in the augmented reality game, Minecraft Earth will utilize the camera on an iOS (10+) and Android (7+) device. Minecraft Earth is constructed from the ground up using Android’s ARCore, and Apple’s ARKit augmented reality frameworks, which Windows platforms currently do not support.
Minecraft Earth Creative Director Jesse Merriam told us that at present, Minecraft Earth is planned only for Android and iOS due to the AR framework dependencies.
Does this mean that Minecraft Earth may never appear on HoloLens or Windows 10 devices? It’s hard to say, but considering Microsoft is pioneering in the augmented reality space with HoloLens, it’s a little hard to believe that any future possible consumer-ready augmented reality product from Microsoft wouldn’t support this game, considering how popular it’s likely going to be. We’ll have to wait and see.
